September 18, 2008
Philippine government may unlikely import chicken this Christmas
The country may not import chicken this Christmas season as the Department of Agriculture sees sufficient supply for the remainder of the year.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said with the poultry industry growing at 4.44 percent in the first half of 2008, importation may stay at the sidelines.
Yap said the cold storages of the National Meat Inspection Service are full right now that imports will not have any space for storage.
Earlier, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said the government is keeping the option to import chicken open as a safeguard against price spikes during the Christmas season when consumption for this commodity is up.
Trade Secretary Peter Favila said the DTI is focused on products with high level of demand during the holidays.
Favila said there is a tendency for their prices to be pulled up, including chicken, so the government needs to make sure that any price adjustment will not be unreasonable.
According to Greg San Diego of the United Broiler Raisers Association, there is no need to import chicken outside the minimum access volume(MAV) of 23 million kilos for the year because there will be sufficient supply for the holidays to meet the projected strong demand.
He said there are still around 2 million kilograms of chicken that existing MAV holders have not yet brought into the country, so there is no need to allocate more volume outside of MAV.
