April 10, 2007

 

Small poultry raisers in the Philippines seek moratorium on chicken imports
 

 

Small poultry growers in the Philippines are pleading the government to implement a moratorium on the importation of frozen and chilled chicken parts at least until the local demand for chicken improves, reports the Business Mirror daily.

 

United Broilers' Raisers Association (Ubra) president Gregorio San Diego said that poultry growers expect to suffer more losses this year due to the slow in demand for chicken.

 

San Diego said the association had notified the Department of Agriculture that chicken imports are at an all-time high and has asked the temporary suspension for the importation of chicken.

 

San Diego disclosed that for the first two months of the year, importation has already exceeded import targets for the January and February period by at least 30 percent.

 

The Ubra chief said the current chicken supply does not yet factor in the possible impact of smuggling.

 

Ubra has earlier expressed apprehension that the decline in demand for their poultry and poultry products could cause them to cut production to reduce their losses.

 

San Diego said poultry raisers were earlier targeting to surpass last year's production of 456 million heads by 5 percent this year as they had expected demand to pick up because of the May elections.

 

Compounding the woes of poultry raisers is the high price of yellow corn in the domestic market, he said.

 

San Diego lambasted the current price of P12 (US$0.25) to P12.50 (US$0.26) per kilo in contradiction to government's earlier the abundance of local corn supply will ease out prices.

 

The Ubra chief said the high corn prices could be alleviated if the government will allow more importation of corn.

 

The government has earlier allowed importers to bring in 200,000 metric tonnes (MT) of yellow corn during the lean season.