:00:00. > :00:15.Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:16. > :00:24.The owner of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell in China reports of strong
:00:25. > :00:31.profits thanks to hungry consumers. And handmade guitars from the
:00:32. > :00:39.Philippines. Turning to the Internet to save a vanishing craft. Good
:00:40. > :00:44.morning, Asia and hello, world, glad you could join us for this edition
:00:45. > :00:48.of Asia Business Report. It has been 30 years since the first KFC
:00:49. > :00:54.restaurant opened in China. The company has come a long way and its
:00:55. > :01:00.owner reported its latest results and the profit is up by nearly 40%
:01:01. > :01:08.other than KFC it also owns Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. There are more
:01:09. > :01:11.than 7600 outlets throughout the mainland. Consumers have shown their
:01:12. > :01:17.appetite for Western-style fried chicken and pizza. Spinning off its
:01:18. > :01:23.China business has certainly paid off. The sceptics were wrong. If you
:01:24. > :01:29.look at China there is a yen to spend. Not only do they have a yen
:01:30. > :01:37.to spend they also have you won. What we are seeing is that Chinese
:01:38. > :01:45.consumers want to spend money. -- yuan to spend. Can this be sustained
:01:46. > :01:48.bombing forward with the fast changing tastes of mainland
:01:49. > :01:55.consumers? What we saw last night... We have to remember that Yum China
:01:56. > :02:04.owns three brands. Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC. I am getting hungry
:02:05. > :02:10.now. What we saw that picture and chicken were flat. As a result, what
:02:11. > :02:13.happens to Yum China is that all have to do well. Even though the
:02:14. > :02:20.profits were good, we saw that sales were flat. So they had to offset the
:02:21. > :02:27.weakness of each other. But 7600 stores and counting, this is a huge
:02:28. > :02:31.chain in mainland China. Will new branches bring growth or drain the
:02:32. > :02:36.cash flow? You could do a little bit of both. 30 years ago they had one
:02:37. > :02:44.store. Now they have over 7000. That is in 30 years. They want to 600
:02:45. > :02:47.stores this year and that will be quite significant. The problem is
:02:48. > :02:52.that they then start to cannibalise their own stores. What we are
:02:53. > :02:58.focusing on at the moment are the first tier cities, Shanghai, Beijing
:02:59. > :03:03.for example. But when we dropped to the legatees, it becomes a more
:03:04. > :03:07.challenging. How about the stigmas of the food scandals from years ago.
:03:08. > :03:13.Has that been forgotten? I think it has. Consumers are rolled by ruled
:03:14. > :03:23.by their stomach rather than their head. Once they are hungry, they
:03:24. > :03:27.will eat. There are occasionally food scares but they have been put
:03:28. > :03:33.in the past and they are focusing on the future. Volvo, owned by China's
:03:34. > :03:39.company has become the first carmaker to announce it will no
:03:40. > :03:41.longer make petrol or diesel only vehicles. From 2019 all of their
:03:42. > :03:52.models will be electric or hybrid. He drives up in a 19 oh weight model
:03:53. > :03:56.T. The shape has changed a bit over the years but thank goodness when it
:03:57. > :04:01.comes to the brown allegro. All these cars have one thing in common,
:04:02. > :04:05.an internal combustion engine turning petrol or diesel. We have
:04:06. > :04:09.relied on it for a century but is that about to change? Volvo is
:04:10. > :04:15.taking a bold step, heralding the end of an era of the pure internal
:04:16. > :04:21.combustion engine. From 2019, Volvo says all its new models will be at
:04:22. > :04:25.least partly electric. Ambitious plans but experts say it won't be
:04:26. > :04:31.quick. Diesel and petrol will have a long live in them yet. People choose
:04:32. > :04:37.to adopt hybrids before they go electric. This sums up one of the
:04:38. > :04:44.big street -- reasons why electric cars have not been adopted. Often
:04:45. > :04:49.you cannot park near your house so how can you charge your electric
:04:50. > :04:54.car? Cities are plagued by pollution with diesel engines one of the main
:04:55. > :04:59.culprits. Electric cars are quieter and cleaner. They are getting
:05:00. > :05:01.cheaper with a better range. It will still be some years before the
:05:02. > :05:05.internal combustion engine drives off for good.
:05:06. > :05:12.If you like beef and chicken it is likely you have eaten a Brazilian
:05:13. > :05:16.product in recent months. The country accounts for almost one
:05:17. > :05:23.fifth of all meat exporter in the world. Of this year, local police
:05:24. > :05:26.unveiled a bribery scheme where health officials allow tainted meat
:05:27. > :05:32.to reach school meals and supermarket shelves. Companies
:05:33. > :05:39.involved denied wrong doing the shares plunged by 40%. Can the
:05:40. > :05:51.reputation big repaired? -- be repaired? The cattle here roam free
:05:52. > :05:57.in the fields. Since Brazil's GBS codes down the local meat processing
:05:58. > :06:04.plant, ranches here have no-one to sell me too. TRANSLATION: This is
:06:05. > :06:09.not foot and mouth disease. This was caused by corporate corruption. The
:06:10. > :06:14.prices have fallen sharply. Farmers like this man are part of an army of
:06:15. > :06:19.4 million people who helped to turn Brazil into one of the top meat
:06:20. > :06:22.producing nations in the world. Now a scandal involving a leading
:06:23. > :06:26.company down here is bringing uncertainty to what was once an very
:06:27. > :06:34.profitable business. All those they say food safety was not compromised,
:06:35. > :06:38.negative headlines are taking their toll on the meat industry.
:06:39. > :06:42.Transocean Mack the Brazilian government needs to act to get the
:06:43. > :06:46.message across that much Brazilian mate is safe for consumption and
:06:47. > :06:49.defend its reputation. But with the government at war against the
:06:50. > :06:57.country's top meat country, that is unlikely to happen any time soon.
:06:58. > :07:01.That war now has millions of farmers worried about the future of their
:07:02. > :07:15.businesses. A reputation that took decades to establish will take years
:07:16. > :07:25.to repair. A city in the Philippines considers itself the guitar country
:07:26. > :07:28.of -- centre of the country. They have been given access to new
:07:29. > :07:38.markets via the Internet that they face unique challenges.
:07:39. > :07:48.When karaoke came, people started singing karaoke instead of the
:07:49. > :07:55.guitar. There is a karaoke every 50 metres. We Filipinos, we love to
:07:56. > :07:57.seeing. One of the biggest challenges is the factory produced
:07:58. > :08:15.guitars. We prioritise quality over quantity.
:08:16. > :08:17.We would like to show everyone that there are still Filipino maid
:08:18. > :08:31.guitars that are very good quality. Handcrafted guitars are so much
:08:32. > :08:35.better in terms of quality. The way we build our guitars is actually
:08:36. > :08:43.done by a single luthier, from start to finish. That makes it unique and
:08:44. > :08:50.a work of art. No two guitars are alike.
:08:51. > :09:02.70% of the guitars and ukuleles are online and the rest are walk-in
:09:03. > :09:07.customers. Like before where the clients we get a mostly from the
:09:08. > :09:08.Philippines, it is easier for us to showcase our products and our with
:09:09. > :09:30.everything online. We have one brand, we ship the item
:09:31. > :09:34.without strings. And they slap the Rembrandt on it. There are other
:09:35. > :09:39.ones we were gone from start to finish and wish it goes direct to
:09:40. > :09:46.the customer. There are less and less people working on this craft.
:09:47. > :09:49.The skill is not being passed from one generation to another. Even
:09:50. > :09:54.though we can train them, the interest is not there. We hold onto
:09:55. > :09:58.our passion of making quality instruments. Let the people
:09:59. > :10:04.understand that there are still handcrafted instruments like that.
:10:05. > :10:12.Beautifully made handcrafted guitars and ukuleles from the Philippines.
:10:13. > :10:19.Before we go, let's have a look at the markets.
:10:20. > :10:27.The All Ordinaries is down because petroleum producers have lost steam
:10:28. > :10:30.after an eight session winning streak. Thank you for investing your
:10:31. > :10:35.time with us. The top stories this hour:
:10:36. > :10:38.At the United Nations, the US ambassador has described
:10:39. > :10:41.North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile test as a sharp
:10:42. > :10:46.military escalation. Heavy floods caused by unprecedented
:10:47. > :10:50.rain have forced almost 400,000