Akita Prefecture residents have been stepping up efforts to boost sales of high-quality local chicken as breeders struggle to keep their businesses afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.

The falling sales of Hinai chicken, an Akita specialty, is a reflection of fewer consumers dining out in Akita and the rest of the country since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a nationwide state of emergency last month to curb a further increase in infections.

Akita Prefecture has only had a fraction of the cases seen in Japan's virus hotspots like Tokyo and Osaka, but the sales slump is so severe that a breeder in Odate, a major production site for Hinai chicken, said he cannot see how the situation will improve.