Favila asks Japan to lift its ban on RP chicken

Trade and Industry Secretary Peter B. Favila has appealed to Japan to lift its ban on the importation of chicken products from the Philippines.

Following a recent trip to Japan where he met with Japanese Agriculture Minister Shoichi Nakagawa, Favila reported yesterday that Nakagawa assured him of Japan’s prompt response to the request as soon as the Philippines meets certain technical and scientific requirements.

The Philippines, Favila said, has already responded to the first set of questions sent by Japan.

A supplemental set of questions has also been given which the Philippines still has to answer, Favila said.

Following his appeal, Favila said, Nakagawa promised to send a Japanese technical team to work with officials of the Philippine Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health.

Japan accounts for 90 percent of Philippine chicken exports but the Philippines has a minimal share of the lucrative Japanese poultry market. Thailand is the major supplier of processed chicken to Japan.

The Philippines exports mostly frozen chicken to Japan.

Following a bird flu scare in Bulacan in July last year, chicken exports were voluntarily stopped by Philippine authorities.

However, late last year chicken exports to Australia were resumed following findings by Australian health authorities that the Philippines’ poultry products remain free from any pathogenic avian influenza (AI), also commonly known as the bird flu virus.

An analysis conducted by the Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL), the regional reference laboratory for AI of the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) of the World Organization for Animal Health and the Food and Agriculture Organization, confirmed that the Philippines is still free from any highly pathogenic AI.

The AAHL, which was commissioned by the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) to study blood samples of infected ducks from a small, isolated duck farm in Calumpit, Bulacan, reported that there was no active infection in the samples examined.

"Although the ducks have been exposed to a low pathogenic avian influenza virus, the birds’ natural systems apparently eliminated the low risk flu strain," the AAHL report said. The AAHL report further stated that the H5N3 strain found in the duck samples is unlike the virulent and highly-pathogenic H5N1 strain that swamped many countries in 2004.

The outbreak of the bird flu virus immediately affected the exports of poultry products from the major countries exporting the commodity.

Countries that have traditionally sourced poultry products from Asian countries where outbreaks occurred began importing from other sources. Japan and the European Union imposed an import ban on poultry products from suspected and affected areas.

Last year, the local broiler industry projected total chicken exports to expand to eight million kilos, from only 1.5 million kilos in 2004.