No chicken for Christmas but plenty of turkeys

Poor Cito Lorenzo. His underlings in the bureaucracy, possibly in conspiracy with some people in the private sector, kept him in the dark on the real state of the Christmas chicken shortage. Wednesday morning after reading my column, Cito was confident enough to text me that the situation had been addressed. He urged me to check out the supermarkets again.

I did. I dropped by Shopwise Libis thinking that poultry industry leaders would flood it with chicken if only to prove this pest of a columnist wrong. But would you believe there was not one chicken, whole or chopped, in Shopwise Libis at about 10 in the morning of Christmas Eve?

So I texted Cito about it and he replied that now he is going on a warpath. Cito must have realized that while the poultry industry failed to deliver chickens in time for Christmas, there are plenty of turkeys to go around. Unfortunately, these turkeys are not of the edible variety. They work behind desks in government and poultry companies and feed him misinformation.

I don’t blame Cito for feeling betrayed. The president of the Philippine Association of Broiler Integrators also e-mailed me that there is an "incremental 1.3 million birds forthcoming." That sounded like a promise to normalize the situation. That was probably why Cito was confident enough to text me to "pls check if you have a chance" and that I should "correct misperceptions" created by my column.

Well… I guess not too many people know that I love going around checking stuff in groceries. It is a habit that carries over from my days in advertising when checking market shelves was part of the job. I find observing people as they make their purchase picks useful even as a journalist. It gives me a sense not just of the market but of what people are thinking, their problems and their aspirations.

I had to explain to Cito that even as I value his friendship, I just had to bring out the problem with the chicken supply because I think there is more to it than just having relleno for noche buena. I suspect some serious mistakes were made, possibly premeditated for profit motives or just plain unpardonable stupidity.

The president of the industry group e-mailed me that "the ongoing tightness in the supply of chicken is a short-term problem that unfortunately coincided with the peak demand of the holiday season." I sensed it was not the whole story. But what got me fuming was the following line: "We expect that by January, supply would have returned to normal and be adequate to meet demand." That’s a callous copout. As I said, we need the chickens for the Christmas table, not for Valentine’s Day.

I asked some knowledgeable sources and what I found out made me even more furious. Apparently, the local poultry industry culled their flock shortly after Typhoon Harurot because of the increased feed costs. But they mostly culled the layer hens. Culling layers, in turn, brought about a sharp decrease in the number of available day old chicks needed to build up the flock for the usually high Christmas demand.

Was this shortage artificial? Was it induced? You have to assume the industry knows that such culling would have an impact some months down, or towards Christmas. Unfortunately for consumers, the price of chicken feed and chicken itself also rose in the world market. This discouraged the usual importers from bringing in additional stock for Christmas.

But I recall that then Trade Secretary Mar Roxas proposed tax free importation if only to prevent the crisis we ended up facing this Christmas. His idea was however, not bought by technocrats at the Agri department. Of course, local industry is always against importation. The proposal was debated until there was no more time to import, given the many bureaucratic requirements that must be met to do that.

Actually, we shouldn’t be surprised this thing happened. Our local poultry industry had been unable to operate their business with any amount of competence in the past. This is why they keep on suffering serious losses with supply gluts. Now they add one more notch to their record: a shortage.

The technocrats at the Agri department should have stepped in early to protect the consumers. They should have devised a way to get additional supplies of chicken even at the elevated prices because the shortage brought the retail price at beyond the P100/kilo level anyway. I guess they are much too close to the industry to see the greater interest of the people. Mar Roxas tried to intercede for consumers, but they overruled him.

My advice to Cito is to have his defenses up when he deals with these turkeys. Cito is such a nice guy, not at all the cynical pain-in-the-behind columnists like me are. But they will run circles around him again unless he is more adept in keeping a step ahead of everyone. Why do you think Ate Glo goes out on spot inspection trips all the time? She knows you can’t trust things to happen right unless you make well damn sure by being on the ground yourself.

Sorry to spoil your Christmas, Cito. But it had to be done. I am sorry that a friend like me can’t be trusted to make your tenure comfortable. It is something that goes with the job, yours and mine. I’d still love to be your friend if you would still have me. After all, trabaho lang yan.

Perspective

From: Joseph Chan, this contribution he dedicated to Dr. Ernie E.

Prostitute making a cash deposit at the bank...

TELLER: I’m sorry ma’am, but this P1,000 bill is a fake.

PROSTITUTE: Help!! I’ve been raped!!!

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]