DA helps fund P85-M egg processing facility

The Department of Agriculture (DA) will help fund the P85-million investment required to put up the country’s first egg processing plant.

The facility proposed by the National Federation of Egg Producers in the Philippines or the Philippine Egg Board (PEB) is expected to give a boost to the local egg industry.

Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr. made the pronouncement during the recently concluded Sinuam Festival and Farmers’ Convention in San Jose, Batangas organized by the PEB and the Batangas Egg Producers Association.

"Once operational, the egg processing plant will require 160,000 eggs daily to produce more than 8,000 kilos of liquid processed egg a day," Lorenzo said.

Processed egg is used mainly for making mayonnaise. The daily production output is expected to be 48 percent processed egg whites, 28 percent yolk, nine percent whole eggs and egg shells. The eggs will be supplied by members of the federation.

"The feasibility study shows that the project is financially viable and the resulting products - liquid egg white, yolk and whole egg – will be competitive as they would be cheaper than imported ones," Lorenzo said.

In 2002, the Philippines imported a total of 1,560 metric tons of processed egg equivalent to 151.5 million eggs worth $4 million.

"The proposed processing plant could replace one-third of our total annual imports, saving us $1.4 million or roughly P78 million and at the same time providing our egg producers a chance to move up the value chain and become more viable and profitable," Lorenzo said.

Lorenzo also lauded the PEB for the children’s egg feeding program and the nationwide tri-media campaign that they are launching in May to boost the country’s per capital egg consumption.

He said that while each Filipino consumes an average of 50 eggs a year, or once a week, Thailanders eat thrice as much while our Chinese counterparts consume six times as much as Americans eat at least two eggs a day.

By increasing the country’s per capita egg consumption by 10 - to 60 eggs a year, Lorenzo said the country would need an additional 845 million eggs with an aggregate value of P2.1 billion.

"That is a big boost for our egg producers," Lorenzo said.

Lorenzo also urged the industry to support the government in its effort to control egg smuggling.

"We are currently imposing strict quarantine measures to prevent the entry of major animal diseases into the country like the avian flu," Lorenzo said.