Poultry raisers eye exports to S Africa, Russia, Germany

The country’s poultry integrators have set their sights on alternative export markets such as South Africa, Russia and Germany. These three countries are reportedly looking for new suppliers from bird-flu free countries.

Poultry Export Board chairman Ruben Pascual who is also the spokesperson of the Philippine Association of Broiler Integrators (PABI) said several companies are now in the process of acquiring the necessary accreditation to facilitate their exports.

"We are looking at potential new markets that are looking for suppliers from countries that have not been hit by avian influenza," said Pascual.

He said several trading houses in Russia and Germany have been making inquiries with local poultry processors. Aside from these two countries, other possible export markets are Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia.

Pascual said that while world market prices of chicken are plunging, the Philippines expects to keep on gaining strides in the chicken export market especially since buyers continue to be cautious in getting their supply from countries that have been struck by the deadly bird flu virus.

The highly pathogenic H5N1 bird-flu strain continues to spread across the globe, hitting new countries such as France, Germany and India.

The Philippines is exploring alternative markets especially after Japan nixed repeated requests by the country to resume its exports of chicken to Japan.

Japan last year banned chicken exports from the Philippines after a small duck farm in Bulacan was alleged to have been afflicted with the bird-flu virus. Subsequently, it was ruled that the dead ducks were struck with a low-pathogenic bird flu disease.

The Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) said for the Philippines to take advantage of the growing demand for chicken and chicken meat products, it will devolve farm surveillance of exporting firms to the local government units’ veterinarians who can immediately check any occurrence of the bird flu virus and other diseases. It will still be the BAI that will issue export permits.

The certification on the wholesomeness of chicken sold to foreign buyers will be done jointly by the BAI and the National Meat Inspection Service as required by most buyers.

The quest for new export markets is crucial to the industry’s survival amidst increasing production costs and weak consumer demand.

Earlier, industry leaders said chicken production this year is expected to further contract, with consumer demand down due to a weak economy.

"A lot of producers have already reduced production on top of their culling done after the Christmas holidays because there was simply no demand. We expected the supply to be tight after that and improve farmgate prices, but because consumers are not buying the way they used to, there is still a huge inventory," said Gregorio San Diego, president of the United Broilers Association of the Philippines (UBRA).

San Diego said earlier that consumers are scrimping on their food budget because wage workers are feeling the pinch of the expanded value added tax.

As a result of poor demand, farmgate prices have been dropping. The current average is P56 to P59 per kilo. While this is higher compared to P48 per kilo in November-December last year, it leaves producers with only a P1 per kilo margin since their production costs have gone up from last year’s P56 per kilo to P60 per kilo starting in January.

San Diego said production inputs rose last January, especially corn feed which raisers bought for an average of P13 per kilo as supply was tight due to the torrential rains in November and December that destroyed a substantial volume from key corn-production areas in Luzon such as Cagayan Valley and Isabela.

Along with this, the steady rise in fuel costs also increased their electricity costs.

The industry is anticipating a turnaround in the second semester, when hopefully the economy will improve and restore consumer confidence.