Japan rejects RP request for resumption of chicken exports

It will take awhile for the Philippines to resume its chicken exports to Japan which has thumbed down the appeal of the local broiler industry despite findings that the country is not afflicted with the deadly highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI) or bird flu strain that devastated billion-dollar poultry farms across Asia in 2004.

Koji Sasaki, Japan’s health attache in Manila said Japan’s agriculture ministry has informed the Philippines that it would not import any poultry or poultry products from the country anytime soon.

Japan’s position was contained in a letter sent by the country’s agriculture ministry to the Philippines’ Department of Agriculture (DA).

"The Philippines said the avian flu that infected the country was low-risk or no-risk. But whether it is low-risk or no-risk, I don’t think Japan will allow the Philippines to resume exporting poultry (to the country) anytime soon," said Sasaki.

In July, the DA reported the discovery of a suspected bird flu flock at a duck farm in Bulacan. Blood samples were tested by the Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL), the regional reference laboratory for AI of the Paris-based Office Internationale des Epizooties, or OIE which is under the World Organization for Animal Health and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

While awaiting the results of the AAHL tests, exporters voluntarily suspended shipments to Japan as part of precautionary measures.

Sasaki said however, that it is unlikely that Japan will allow imports to continue even after the OIE certifies that the Philippines is free of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain.

Japan has a policy of halting imports of chicken from countries that have been plagued by bird flu.

However, sources said the Philippine embassy in Tokyo, Japan, should verify this policy because industry sources said Japan is still reportedly getting the bulk of its processed yakitori chicken cuts from Thailand, one of several Asian countries whose poultry sector lost heavily because of the bird flu crisis.

Agriculture Secretary Domingo Panganiban already asked the OIE to issue a certification declaring the Philippines as bird-flu free.