New restaurants start to set up shop

Koguchi Shiro, one of Shoku-tei Sushi's two head chefs, moved to Shenzhen with his family in January, while the other, Ishida Kazuhiro, planned to arrive at the end of February, but a prolonged journey meant he was unable to start work until late March.

"Chef Kazuhiro could only fly to Shanghai initially, and after being tested for COVID-19 several times, was isolated in a hotel for two weeks before being able to join preparations for opening the business," Ma said.

However, the longer preparation time enabled the restaurant to produce a high standard of service and food, as both the chefs and the service team were able to rehearse for two months, Ma said.

"Customers say the food we serve is of the same standard as that in Tokyo. Due to the pandemic, local customers can't visit Hong Kong or Tokyo, so they are coming to our restaurant more often."

The sushi business has been affected to a certain extent by the outbreak of COVID-19 in Beijing this month at the Xinfadi wholesale farm-produce market, where the virus was detected on cutting boards used for salmon.

However, Ma thinks the situation will soon improve. "The main feature of the catering business is that it's not something that happens over a certain period－it has existed for a long time," he said.

He added that the pandemic will act as a filter. Among businesses of the same type, only the good ones will survive, as customers will be more discerning.

"The pandemic has also made restaurateurs more conservative about scale and pricing when they plan to open new businesses," he said.