RP eyes alternative export markets for processed chicken

The Philippines, one of a few remaining countries in the region that have not been affected by the dreaded bird flu virus, is turning its sights to markets other than Japan which continues to reject the country’s bid to resume shipments of processed chicken to Japan.

Agriculture Secretary Domingo F. Panganiban expressed the Philippine government’s mounting frustration over Japan’s reluctance to reopen its market for processed chicken which was interrupted last year because of a suspected incidence of a bird flu virus in a small poultry farm in Calumpit, Bulacan.

Panganiban said that should Japan reject its latest attempt to resume its chicken exports, the Philippines will consider other markets such as Korea and the Middle East.

"Japan is a significant market, but it is a small market compared to the potential markets in other regions. We do acknowledge though that Japan is an important market because it establishes the Philippines’ capacity to export processed chicken," stressed Panganiban.

The Philippines which voluntarily halted exports of chicken to Japan after the Calumpit incident, was subsequently declared as bird-flu free by the Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL), the regional reference laboratory for AI (avian influenza) of the Paris-based Office International des Epizooties or OIE which is a unit under the World Health Organization for Animal Health and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The MAFF has asked the BAI and the local poultry industry to submit a long list of requirements which was complied with in November. A second questionnaire is due for submission by next month.

"The requirements being asked are already irrelevant to the bird-flu issue. They are asking national data for instance when the suspected bird flu case was isolated and later dismissed by the Australian Animal Health Laboratory," said Panganiban.

"Japan is the only country in the world which does not recognize the Philippines as a bird-flu country," added BAI director Davinio Catbagan.

He said BAI has asked the Japanese government to send MAFF representatives in the Philippines to personally assess the anti-bird flu program of the country, but this was met by lukewarm response.

Catbagan said it is ironic that Japan wouldn’t allow exports to resume when in fact, the Philippines, a bird-flu free country, continues to export rare exotic tropical birds to the likes of Germany and Singapore.