July 8, 2004

 

 

Philippine Poultry Raisers Cry Foul Over Chicken Imports

 

Local poultry raisers on Tuesday urged the Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA) to dispense with any further importations of chicken, citing that the planned shipments have been hurting the domestic industry by causing "unstable" market prices, and forcing many growers to cease production temporarily.

 

United Broilers' Raisers Association (Ubra) chairman Gregorio San Diego said some poultry raisers have been complaining of losses after chicken and chicken products recently registered unstable prices, particularly at the farmgate level.

 

The group has been complaining that its concerns were ignored when the agriculture department went ahead with its plan to import chicken to stabilize domestic prices, despite consultations with the industry. The shipments are supposed to arrive later this month, which, the DA insists would give prices more stability.

 

"The announcement made earlier by the [DA] to import 5,000 metric tons (MT) of chicken has caused instability in the prices of poultry products. A number of groups have stopped producing chickens for the time being," San Diego said in an interview.

 

The Ubra head noted that three weeks ago, farmgate chicken prices were posted at P55 per kilo, which then shot up to P61 the following week. Thereafter, he cited, prices went down again until it ranged between P56 and P58 last week. Ubra has been urging the DA not to import additional volume of chicken and has requested instead that the government to focus its efforts on keeping retail prices of chicken stable.

 

"Farmgate prices always reflect market forces. Even as farmgate prices decline, retail prices continue to be high. Government is barking on the wrong tree. The imports will hurt producers' prices and may not necessarily result in lower prices of chicken for our consumers," San Diego said.

 

Separately, the DA said chicken prices could stabilize once its 5,000-MT poultry shipment arrives starting this month without hurting the industry. San Diego said the DA has already started issuing veterinary quarantine certificates to interested importers.

 

Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr. said these imported chicken will be charged with a 40-percent tariff after the DA lifted the special safeguard measure and the trigger price mechanism of P94 per kilogram for imported chicken. "The 5 million kilos represent less than 1 percent of the total chicken supply and 3 percent of Metro Manila's annual demand," Lorenzo said.

 

San Diego said Ubra was one of several poultry industry groups that were consulted by DA officials on issues confronting the sector, including the potential impact of their planned importation. He said the association was surprised that instead of heeding their request for the government not to import additional chicken, the agency went on and did otherwise.

 

The group lamented that the high prices of feeds has been one of the factors contributing to the sector's production losses. "Given the cost of production, an appropriate price fro a kilo ring huge profit losses," San Diego pointed out. A kilo of yellow corn is said to cost P12. The yellow corn reportedly consist 55 percent of the over-all feed formulation for chicken.