December 7, 2006

 

Philippines' chicken imports exceeds MAV

 

 

The Philippines additional importation of 2,000 tonnes of chicken leg quarters early last month would be above Minimum Access Volumes and be exempt from special agricultural safeguards, according to the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service in its weekly International report.

 

The shipment would only be subject to the regular tariff rate of 40 percent, the report said. However, it must arrive in the country not later than December 31, 2006 to be exempt from SSG duty and is limited to members of the United Broiler Raisers Association and the Northern Mindanao Poultry Industry Association.

 

In June 2004 a perceived tightness in supply and rising retail prices led to a special importation to allow up to 10,000 tonnes of chicken over and above the MAV of 22,968 tonnes for 2004. Importers were allowed to bring in 5,000 tones from June to August and were scheduled to bring in an additional 5,000 tonnes from September until the end of the year.

 

In October 2004 the SSG was re-imposed because the supply of chicken and chicken products have stabilised.

 

Despite an increase in total poultry imports in 2005, Minimum Access Volume (MAV) usage for fresh, chilled and frozen poultry meat declined from 92 percent in 2004 to 72 percent in 2005. Increasing imports of poultry that were further processed and re-exported may have contributed to the increase in out-of-quota imports.

 

As of July 2006 MAV was expected to be fully utilised due to the minimal growth in chicken production projected for this year. Despite the uniform duty of 40 percent for most poultry products, the Philippines maintains a Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) for poultry. The 2006 TRQ is 23,490 tonnes, unchanged from last year.

 

Poultry accounted for 14.32 percent of the total agricultural production in the latest Performance of Philippine Agriculture survey. Although chicken egg production rose 3.64 percent over the first three quarters of 2006, all other poultry production were reduced. Total chicken production in 2005 was 1.2 million tonnes live weight while broiler inventory for January 1 2006 was estimated at 35.9 million birds.

 

The three major poultry producing regions are Central Luzon (11,936,866), Southern Tagalog (10,218,218) and Calabarzon (10,134,922).

 

The tight supply of broilers this year was due to the typhoon in May, the report said.

 

Since late September four major typhoons have struck the Philippines, including 3 supertyphoons. This was the first time three super-typhoons occurred in one year in Philippine history.