The Department of Agriculture (DA) has lifted the temporary ban of poultry products from Hungary.
The DA issued Memorandum Order 64 series of 2022 signed by senior undersecretary Domingo Panganiban on Tuesday,after Hungary provided evidence that it already contained its bird flu incidence.
The issuance specifically allowed the importation of domestic and wild birds and their products including poultry meat, day old chicks, eggs and semen originating from Hungary, but must still comply with existing importation rules of the DA.
The ban on importation of poultry products from Hungary was implemented in December last year after the country experienced widespread outbreaks of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI).
According to data from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), the Philippines imported 244.8 million kilograms of chicken meat from January to August 2022, downby 6 percent from the 260.31 million kg recorded in the same period in 2021.
The BAI data also showed that no imported meat was purchased by the Philippines from Hungary for the entire 2021 and for the first eight months of 2022.
Last February, the DA reported that a new strain of the AI virus was detected in the country, after being declared free of the disease last year. The Philippines was first hit by AI in 2017.
DA’s monitoring of 13 public markets as of yesterday showed that the prevailing retail price of whole dressed chicken is P190 per kg.
