June 10, 2020

 

Philippine poultry sector opposes increasing imports

 

 

The poultry sector of the Philippines has stood against the proposal of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to increase the volume of poultry imports, Manila Bulletin reported.

 

In an open letter issued on June 9 to DA Secretary William Dar, the United Broilers and Raisers' Association (UBRA), supported by the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc (PCAFI), has dismissed the claim of DA's Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) that poultry imports are too "minimal" to hurt Filipino producers.

 

The open letter was signed by UBRA chairman Gregorio San Diego and UBRA president Elias Jose Inciong.

 

"Imports are not a mere threat but it has caused actual damage in the last 25 years. The volume of imports need not be overwhelming to cause damage. It only takes a relatively minimal volume to move farmgate prices from profit to loss as agricultural products are commodities," said UBRA.

 

Poultry producers have raised serious concerns over the utterly depressed price of chicken during the COVID-19 lockdown, which dragged prices down even below PHP70 per kilo.

 

Private farm sector group PCAFI lamented that DA hardly listened to the voice of Filipino poultry raisers.

 

"PCAFI fully supports the complaint sent to Secretary Dar, which is apparently not taken with serious attention and without considering the plight of the poultry industry. Food production is the main focus of the economic managers to recover from COVID-19, but the people of DA recommends the opposite in favour of foreign producers," said PCAFI president Danilo Fausto.

 

They noted that prices of imports are low because these come from countries with subsidised agricultural system.

 

They also noted that the Foreign Agricultural Service of the USDA placed Philippines' poultry imports at an increasing rate from 320,000 tonnes in 2018 to 345,000 tonnes in 2019, and 390,000 tonnes in 2020.

 

UBRA and PCAFI officials were invited to a virtual meeting on June 4 by DA-BAI regarding meat supply with high expectation that their pleading for suspension of poultry imports will be supported.

 

They petitioned on May 4 for the immediate suspension of imports of poultry meat and poultry products.

 

Instead, the groups lamented that BAI asked the local poultry raisers to "self-regulate and limit local production" during the virtual meeting on June 4.

 

"It is disappointing, to say the least, that BAI is pretending to be unaware of the competitive international market dominated by the United States, Brazil, and Thailand," UBRA said.