November 20, 2009

 

Philippine customs bureau allows 8 million kilos of chicken, poultry products imports 

 

 

The Philippine Bureau of Customs (BOC) has permitted importation of eight million of kilos of chicken and other poultry products which will begin later this month through January next year in an attempt to arrest possible shortages in the coming holidays where demand is at its peak.

 

He added that the Department of Agriculture (DA) will be the one to issue the import permits and also to make sure that the domestic market is not flooded with imports.

 

Morales added that they will only get revenues from the Special Safeguard duty that will be imposed on all the imported products.

 

In a letter of Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap to the BOC, poultry raisers faced production problems in the third quarter, worsened by the effects of typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng.

 

Dated September 29, Yap mentioned in the letter that the country may experience tightness in supply of poultry meat, resulting in an increase of poultry-meat prices during the holiday season.

 

He first asked for the importation of 5 million kilos, but there will be an additional 3 million kilos after their estimates showed that the "tightness of supply of poultry meat" will persist even up to early next year.

 

According to the conditions set by the DA, only Veterinary Quarantine Clearance (VQC) to Import issued from October 15, 2009 onward shall be allowed to import, provided that the shipments will arrive between November 30, 2009, and January 31, 2010. All of these shipments will be subjected to duties even if they arrive within the period.

 

For Minimum Access Volume (MAV) licensees who will avail themselves of the special importation, Yap said their MAV allocations for the year 2009 must be fully utilized first before they are entitled to the privilege.

 

United Broiler Raisers Association president Gregorio San Diego Jr. in an earlier report said the loss in the poultry sector was not that extensive.

 

San Diego said that election-related spending will increase demand for poultry products but could not quantify the demand.

 

For the whole of 2009, he noted that broiler production could grow by 5 percent, lower than the 15-percent growth the industry projected at the start of the year.

 

San Diego attributed this lower growth to the challenges faced by commercial and small poultry raisers, including the tight supply of day-old chicks.

 

In 2006, the government also lifted the restrictions of chicken importation and allowed the importation of about 5,000 tonnes of the product after Typhoon Milenyo ravaged Metro Manila and parts of Luzon.