Swift Foods ships chicken to Japan

Swift Foods Inc., one of the country’s biggest poultry producers, is venturing into the exports business with the initial shipment of about 35 metric tons of frozen cuts and processed chicken products to Japan.

Swift president Bernardo Concepcion said in a statement that the company will export its processed chicken products to Japanese firms Sumikin Busan and Nisho Iwai.

"The company would be exporting chicken cut-ups for the known Japanese chicken barbecue dish, the yakitori," Concepcion said.

He said that representatives of both Japanese companies, along with their customers, inspected Swift’s new modern dressing facilities in

Cagayan de Oro to determine if it has the capability to meet their specific requirements.

Swift’s chicken dressing plant has a rated processing capacity of  8,000 birds per hour and the processing facility is capable of producing value-added chicken products such as fillets, frozen cut-ups and other preparations.

Former Trade Secretary Jose "JoeCon" Concepcion Jr., chairman of Swift’s parent firm RFM Corp., said it took some time to finalize the product shipment requirements of the Japanese clients because the products involve labor intensive preparations.

The elder Concepcion said in a previous interview that while the

domestic pricing for the same value-added products are more attractive than exporting to Japan, the company saw this as an opportunity to break into the international market as well as further upgrade its facilities to meet world market standards.

Concepcion said the venture is also labor-intensive since it requires 600 workers weekly to fill up the 140 cubic foot refrigerated vans with 30 metric tons of chicken products that will be shipped to Japan in the next six months.

"The Japanese are very specific with their orders. We have to be precise with the meat cuts and should not even exceed 30 grams," Concepcion Jr. said.

Swift Foods is one of the country’s pioneers in integrated poultry production. In recent years, it forged several joint ventures with local entrepreneurs to invest more than P500 million to expand its Northern Mindanao facilities.