Broiler output seen to grow 25%

A glut in local chicken supply is expected as the production of broilers has been forecast to go up by 25 percent this year.

The Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) estimates that broiler production will reach 593.75 million from 475 million chicks in 2002, an output which fueled the chicken industry to register gross revenues of P66.5 billion last year.

Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr. said the anticipated excess production is largely due to the huge importation of day-old chicks (DOC) by some of the country’s biggest poultry integrators between 2001 and 2002.

Lorenzo explained that these chicks mature as grandparent stock and parent stock, some of which continue to lay eggs that grow up to become next-generation parent stock and broilers even up to this day.

Data from the BAI show that close to 1.4 million female DOC that served as parent stock, or those which grew up to become layers of 45-day old broilers, had been imported into the country in 2001.

Some of the biggest parent stock DOC importers were Vitarich Corp. which brought in 27 percent of total, San Miguel Purefoods, which shipped in 24 percent, and Tyson Agriventures, which imported 17 percent.

On the same year, some of country’s biggest poultry firms brought in 228,000 female DOC meant to serve as grandparent stock, of which 39 percent had been imported by San Miguel Purefoods, 36 percent by Vitarich subsidiary Breeder Master, and 11 percent by Swift Foods owned by the Concepcion family.

The parent stocks and grandparent stocks’ capability to breed succeeding generations of broilers was enhanced when large poultry firms continued to import these animals last year, further increasing the country’s capacity to boost its chicken production in 2003, Lorenzo said.

Last year, some 1.46 million parent stock DOC was brought into the country for layering purposes, and as a result, the country had experienced bumper production of broilers.