Chicken shortage seen to last only up to early Jan

The current chicken supply shortage is expected to last only up to the first or second week of January, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said yesterday.

In a yearend press briefing, Acting Trade Secretary Adrian Cristobal said that based on the assurance of local chicken growers, the current shortage will be addressed with the delivery of 1.3 million chickens.

"The demand for chicken is also seasonal and with the end of the Christmas and New Year holidays, the demand is expected to normalize in the first or second week of January," Cristobal said.

The additional supply of chicken and the expected slack in demand would thus normalize the chicken supply situation by next year, Cristobal said.

Earlier this month, former Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel Roxas II had foreseen the shortage and had recommended the special importation of chicken at a lower tariff rate.

However, following an assurance from local chicken growers, that recommendation was dropped.

Chicken growers had promised to deliver the additional 1.3 million chicken this month but so far have not made good on their promise, thus causing chicken prices to rise to an average of P110 per kilo in the wetmarkets.