1st chicken export to Japan rushed

The Philippines is rushing to export an initial order of 30,000 metric tons of chicken by a Japanese conglomerate, a move that should bolster the Philippines’ image as one of the few poultry-producing countries that has managed to keep out the bird flu virus.

Industry sources said Japanese health and quarantine inspectors will fly to Manila this week to look at the processing facilities and procedures of some of the country’s biggest broiler producers.

Philippine health and quarantine authorities are making certain that exporters meet Japan’s stringent requirements.

"The broiler producers want to take advantage of this opportunity to export. This will hopefully make up for the slack in local demand due to unfounded fears of avian flu in the country. More importantly, it also sends the signal that chicken from the Philippines is avian flu-free," said Ruben Pascual, spokesman for the Philippine Association of Broiler Integrators (PABI).

Marubeni Corp., a major trading firm in Japan, put in an order of 30,000 metric tons of chicken from the Philippines to fill part of its import requirements. Prior to the outbreak of bird flu in Asia, China regularly supplied 80 percent of Marubeni’s requirements, with Thailand filling in the remaining 20 percent.

The poultry farms of China and Thailand, however, were one of the first reported to have been devastated by the bird flu virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also confirmed that the disease has also affected Japan’s poultry farms. Japan imports an average of 500,000 metric tons of chicken every year.

Pascual said this is the first time Marubeni will be buying chicken from the Philippines.

"The shipment will not only include chicken parts but also value-added products such as chicken teriyaki and breaded chicken fillet," he said.

Aside from Japan, Vietnam and Brunei have also expressed interest in importing chicken from the Philippines, which the WHO declared as bird flu-free. Vietnam is another of the 10 Asian countries affected by bird flu, which has claimed 18 lives so far.

Exporting chicken to these three countries should help local poultry raisers reeling from the drastic drop in chicken sales and prices. In recent weeks, the bird flu scare caused sales of chicken to nosedive by 50 percent. Farm-gate prices dropped to as low as P40 per kilo, and poultry raisers have complained they are selling at a loss since it takes P60 to produce a kilo of chicken meat.

The Philippines, which has a P96-billion poultry industry, consumed 1.188 billion kilograms (2.6 billion pounds) of chicken last year, with imports from the United States, Canada, Brazil and Europe accounting for just 1.16 percent of domestic consumption, agriculture department figures show.

As a precautionary measure, the Philippines has officially banned live birds and poultry products from Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, China, Laos, Pakistan and Cambodia.

Meanwhile, a congressman warned yesterday that migratory birds from various Asian countries, which often nest in the forests of the mountainous Cordillera region, may be carriers of the bird flu virus.

Pangasinan Rep. Generoso Tulagan said these birds may pose a hazard to Cordillera residents and asked health officials and local authorities to strictly monitor the region to avert a possible outbreak of the disease.

"Special attention must be given to Cordillera because the probability of bird flu epidemic in the area is much higher compared to other parts of the country," he said.

Tulagan explained that during the cold season — usually from September to February — many people in the Cordillera engage in the practice of trapping migratory birds, which are then sold to restaurants and eateries near the highways.

Bird trapping, locally known as "ikik," is done by setting up bonfires to attract migratory birds, which are caught when they fly into huge nets held fast by two bamboo poles. This is commonly practiced in the vegetable-producing towns of Buguias and Kapangan in Benguet and Sagada in Mountain Province.

"Mere contact with these migratory birds could be dangerous because they could be carrying the dreaded bird flu," Tulagan said.

Health officials earlier warned that people exposed to bird feces and other bodily fluids are at increased risk of contracting bird flu.

Tulagan earlier warned cockfighting aficionados and breeders against the hazard posed by migratory birds, which frequent breeding areas of fighting cocks.

He also sought a temporary ban on the importation of game fowl and strict monitoring of pet birds sold in pet shops. — With Paolo Romero