November 3, 2003

 

 

Philippines' Poultry Industry Could Be Major Global Player in Near Future
 

From January to September 2003, the Philippines's poultry industry exported 51,642 hatching eggs and 159,221 day-old-chicks to Malaysia and Indonesia. In the same period, 1,050 salted eggs were imported by Japan, down compared to previous year's 1,252 salted eggs imported. Japan, Saipan and Switzerland had total imports of 1,856 embryonated eggs. Last year, exports of the same commodity to the same countries numbered 3,722.

 

Top poultry exporters for 2002 were Purefoods (53.9 metric tons), Piling-piling Pinoy (54.5MT) and Genos/HAVI/Golden Archers (0.60MT) for a total of 54.5MT.

 

On the other hand, meat exports in 2002 included close to 200MT of processed beef, more than 60MT of processed pork and more than 30MT of processed chicken and fresh frozen chicken.

 

To harness the export potentials of poultry, an export committee on poultry has been formed composed of poultry experts from the private sector and experts from the Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), Livestock Development Council (LDC), National Meat Inspection Commission (NMIC) and International Relations Division (IRD).

 

Studies show that the following countries and regions as possible markets:

 

Japan for its proximity and large volume of poultry requirements for value added products like freeze-dried and ready to cook products. Thailand and China are leading exporters. Other possible exporters are Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam Taiwan and South Korea.

 

The Muslim countries of the Middle East present untapped markets worth billions of dollars. So does the European Union with its huge export quota allocation for Third World countries like the Philippines.

There are, however, some constraints to Philippines tapping its full export potentials:

• Inadequate disease surveillance/meat inspection system for potential exporters
  
  
• Lack of equivalency in accreditation system (e.g. SPS, halal)
  
  
• Inadequate market information and trade promotion
  
  
• High cost of production (feeds, technology, utilities and infrastructure)
  
  
• Absence of value-added products
  
  
• Biosecurity considerations
  

The government through the agriculture department is laying the groundwork with the following measures:

For the comprehensive surveillance system: passage of animal health code/meat inspection law; accreditation of exporting firms' plants and farms; access to diagnostic and laboratory facilities; and technical assistance for disease surveillance systems.

 

For level of equivalence: certification system for SPS, halal.

 

For market information: agriculture/trade attaches and trade missions.

 

Other important government interventions are direct buying of corn by poultry raisers and farmers (NFA CMAP and LBP/GFIs loans); support to soybean program and export incentives (duty-free importation of feeds for poultry exporters and power rebates for modernization and export operation. For industry modernization (access to ACEF funds and a share of tariff proceeds from imported chicken as fund for the poultry sector.

 

With production and marketing savvy, Philippines' poultry industry could be a major player in the global trading in the near future.