Liquid egg processing plant pushed

The Philippine Egg Board (PEB) is proposing the establishment of  a pioneering liquid egg processing plant in the country that will allow local egg producers to supply the requirements of the import-dependent processed egg market.

National Federation of Egg Producers of the Philippines Inc. (NFEPP) secretary Arthur Baron said having this kind of plant would give local egg producers more elbow room to compete with suppliers of imported processed eggs.

"Imported processed eggs are cheaper compared to locally-processed eggs since we cannot produce in bulk. But we can produce huge volumes if we can put up our  own processing facility," said Baron.

The cost of putting up the facility will reach P116 million.

Currently, the local egg processing industry supplies just four percent of  the market. This year, the industry is projecting an increase in its market share from six to seven percent.

Baron said the industry already had talks with local mayonnaise producers who expressed keen interest in the plan.

"The mayo-makers  promised to source locally once the processing facility is in place," said Baron.

 The PEB however, was advised by the Department of Agriculture (DA) to instead set up a dried egg processing facility to further enhance the egg industry’s competitiveness in the local market and boost its chances of getting into the export trade.

"To boost their competitiveness, I’ve asked the Board to go for both liquid and powdered egg plants and we in the government will do our share in helping them turn their vision into a reality," said Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo.

A feasibility study for a liquid egg processing plant has been drafted by the PEB lead by Rizal Poultry farm owner Gregorio San Diego Jr. along with the Livestock Development Council and private consultancy firm Datacon.

During the last five years, traditional bulk buyers of fresh eggs, particularly mayonnaise and salad dressing makers and fastfood chains, shifted to buying cheap imported eggs, driving the local egg industry to suffer from steep price drops due to increasing production but weak demand.

Government figures show import of processed egg like egg powder, dried and liquid yolk and dried and liquid albumin surged 163.3 percent from 592.6 metric tons in 1998 to 1,560.5 MT in 2002, even as local egg producers were able to increase output by 14.8 percent to 4.74 billion eggs over the same period.

San Diego said the proposed processing plant would command a uniform selling price of P90.40 per kilogram for liquid egg yolk, liquid egg white and liquid whole egg to compete head on with the P107.18/kg of imported liquid egg yolk and P214.26/kg imported egg white.

"With the processing plant, industrial users will source their requirements locally due to our competitive price, therefore stimulating demand for local egg. This will also help stabilize farm gate egg prices which went down to P2.40 per piece from P2.70 two weeks ago," said San Diego.