SMC passes UAE test for chicken exports

MANILA, Philippines - San Miguel Corp., the diversified food and beverage conglomerate, has passed the sanitary and phytosanitary requirements of United Arab Emirates (UAE) for chicken export but is still awaiting halal pre-qualification before it can proceed with exportation.

In an interview, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said representatives from the UAE Minis- try of Agriculture have inspected the export-grade dressing plants of the conglomerate’s food unit San Miguel Pure Foods Co. Inc. in Lucena and Tiaong in Quezon province.

“San Miguel’s processing plants have passed the sanitary and phytosanitary requirements of UAE but we are still waiting for halal pre-certification,” Alcala said.

San Miguel produces the well- known Magnolia Fresh Chicken brand. It has also established several halal-certified poultry dressing plants.

Alcala said UAE is also looking at the AAA dressing plants of another company which he declined to identify while assessment is ongoing.

He said there should not be much difficulty in attaining ex- port accreditation because the Philippines remains free from bird flu which continues to plague neighboring Asian coun- tries like South Korea, Hong Kong and China.