September 11, 2006

Philippines eyes poultry exports to Europe

The Philippines is eyeing the possibility of exporting poultry and poultry products to Europe, a senior agriculture official said Monday (Sep 11).

"We're about to start the process of documenting our meat inspection process. If we can export poultry to Europe, this will be very good for the industry," Davinio Catbagan, director of the Bureau of Animal Industry, or BAI, told Dow Jones Newswires.

The documentation process would be undertaken by the BAI and the National Meat Inspection System, and might be completed later this year, Catbagan said.

"If the European Commission is satisfied with the documentation process, then they might send a representative here to make the necessary inspections," he said.

If everything goes well, the Philippines may start to export poultry and poultry products to Europe by next year, he added.

The Philippines, which is one of the few countries in Asia that has managed to stay free of the disease, currently exports poultry and poultry products to Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Kuwait, among others.

In the year to the first week of August, the Philippines' exports of poultry and poultry products totaled 1.63 million kilogrammes.