SENATE committee on agriculture chairman Cynthia Villar has urged the Department of Agriculture (DA) to support the local poultry industry’s call for the temporary ban on imports of chicken meat and other poultry products due to oversupply.
In a letter dated May 18, 2020 to DA Secretary William Dar, Villar said the local broiler industry has lost over 30 percent of its buyers as demand from hotels, restaurants and other institutions were affected by the new coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
Villar said the ban is badly needed since a basic poultry farm will need at least P100,000 to cover housing, equipment, feeds and other operating expenses apart from the need to provide medication and booster feeds.
“The broiler sector has always been privately led and right now, they are asking for help from government to survive. Thus, this appeal to stop in the meantime the importation of poultry and poultry products to prevent oversupply,” Villar said in the letter.
The lawmaker said the current Philippine broiler industry is composed of 20 percent backyard or those with fewer than 1,000 birds and 80 percent commercial farms complemented by 588 registered poultry farms and 175 meat processors.
Villar cited data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed dressed chicken production in the country surged by 40 percent over a decade as it hit 1.4 million metric tons (MT) in 2018 compared to the 1 million MT in 2009.
Per capita consumption improved by 4 percent per year from 11.6 kg in 2009 to 15.6 kg in 2018 with consumption averaging at 13.4 kg per person per year.
She added in 2019, the total number of chickens in poultry farms in the Philippines reached 186.4 million heads.
The United Broiler Raisers Association in a letter dated May 8, 2020 said “ to preserve the remaining production potential for 2020, the importation of poultry meat and poultry products must cease as soon as possible so that the industry, especially those at the breeder stage of the value chain, can hold on until times are less volatile.”
As of last April, supply of chicken is good for 253 days.
