Myanmar KFC fans queue for hours for first taste of US fast food

YANGON, June Myanmar (AFP) — Fried chicken aficionados queued for hours at Myanmar’s first KFC restaurant Tuesday, as the US fast food chain became the latest big foreign brand to open an outlet in the long-cloistered nation.

KFC is the first major US restaurant chain to open in the country as reforms and the removal of most sanctions since the end of outright junta rule tempt investors to a market of millions of prospective consumers.

Soon after the doors opened, a lunchtime crush developed at the new branch in the commercial hub of Yangon.

The firm and its local partner – Yoma Strategic – hope it will be the first of many restaurants across the Southeast Asian nation. Businessman Kyaw Moe queued for three hours to buy chicken for eight family members, including school-age nieces and nephews.

“I want them to taste this. It is my first time. My aunt in Singapore says it is also famous there,’’ the 50-year-old told AFP, brushing off concerns that a taste for foreign fast food could lead to expanding waistlines.

“It is internationally famous, so I think it must be healthy,’’ he said.

Western brands were a rare sight in Myanmar under military rule, which kept the country isolated from the outside world for nearly half a century.

Myanmar’s economy was left in tatters after years of mismanagement under the junta, but reforms under a quasi-civilian government have raised expectations of an economic surge in the resource-rich nation of 51 million potential consumers.