MANILA, Philippines - The United Broilers and Raisers Association (UBRA) and the Philippine Association of Broiler Integrators (PABI) have agreed to bring in 150,000 “hatching eggs” from Malaysia in the next couple of weeks to address a temporary shortage in chick production.
According to Gregorio San Diego of UBRA, the immediate importation of hatching eggs will alleviate a temporary tightness in chick production caused by the spate of recent typhoons.
The volume of imports was agreed upon following a consultation with members of UBRA and PABI.
San Diego last week had told The STAR that chicken supply remains adequate for now with retail price at the wet markets hovering at P130 per kilo.
Local chicken production, San Diego said is at 23 million kilos which will be supplemented by a special importation of an additional five million kilos for a total supply of 28 million kilos of chicken by December.
The bulk of the special importation of five million kilos, San Diego said, are chicken leg quarters from the US.
Imported chicken leg quarters, in fact, San Diego said, are already showing up in the wet markets.
The special importation, the UBRA head said, is intended as a buffer stock for next year due to a possible increase in election-related demand.
At present, San Diego said, consumer demand is still slack but may pick up by December or if there is a shift in demand from pork to chicken.
The P130 per kilogram retail price, San Diego said, is based on a computation of a P90 to P92 per kilogram farm gate price plus an additional P35, which would result in a retail price of around P127 to P130/kg.
San Diego disclosed that prior to typhoon Ondoy, the cost of chicken production was between P8 and P12 per head.
However, a change in nutrition with the shift of feed ingredients from corn to feedwheat caused a disruption in production.
This was further aggravated by the spate of typhoons, resulting in almost no delivery of day-old chicks.