May 17, 2007

Philippine chicken exports up 49 percent in Q1

The resumption of chicken exports to Japan in June 2006 has pulled up Philippine exports of meat products to 49 percent in the first quarter to 509,000 kilograms from 342,200 kilos in the same period last year, according to official data.

Exports to Japan in the first four months of 2007 accounted for 63 percent of the total shipment. According to the Meat Import/Export Assistance and Inspection Division of the National Meat Inspection Service, exports bound to Japan include 325,632 kilograms of frozen chicken cuts.

Japan has previously banned Philippine chicken products in mid-2005 due to avian flu scare.

Tajikistan was the second-biggest export destination, accounting for 14 percent of the total. The Philippines exported chicken franks and cooked hotdogs to the former Soviet republic.

The country exported a total of 2.2 million kilograms of frozen chicken cuts, cooked chicken paws, canned/processed meat, chicken francs/cooked hotdog and dried, milled beef and pork last year.

Hong Kong also accounted for about 41 percent of the exports, taking about a million kilograms in 2006.

Japan, despite its ban until June, was the second-biggest market in 2006, taking more than 400,000 kilograms of frozen chicken cuts and canned/processed meat.

China came in third with 384,120 kilograms, mostly chicken parts.

The exporters included San Miguel Foods Corporation and its unit Purefoods-Hormel Co., and consolidator-exporter Marzell Inc. and sister-company Royal Cargo Ecozone Inc. They also shipped semi-processed, deboned chicken parts to Japan, South Korea, China and Malaysia.