DA acts to prevent spike in chicken prices by December

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agriculture (DA) is taking steps to prevent a sharp increase in the price of chicken by December following a move by local poultry growers to cut the production of breeders due to a current oversupply of chicken.

In an interview with reporters, newly designated Agriculture Assistant Secretary Davinio Catbagan said that there is an oversupply and this has driven down the price of live chicken to P50-P57 per kilo, way below the production cost of P58-P62 per kilo.

According to Catbagan, the United Broiler Raisers Association (UBRA) claims that in some areas the live price is down to P48 per kilo.

Likewise, the price of dressed chicken has gone down to P120 per kilo from P140-P150 per kilo. But the DA believes that wet market retailers can afford to bring down their selling price further to P90-P110 per kilo.

Reports indicate that local poultry growers have stopped “loading” or hatching breeder eggs to remedy the current glut.

Catbagan explained that the oversupply stems from the over-importation last year (2009) of breeders and the over-importation of chicken through the minimum access volume (MAV) allocation. According to DA figures, MAV utilization as of Aug. 31 was at 72 percent.

The yearly MAV allocation, Catbagan said, is 23,590,000 kilos.

Last year, he said, total MAV allocation utilization was 92 percent.

Catbagan said there are some six million kilos of chicken in cold storage facilities.

Gregorio San Diego, president of UBRA, places the figure in cold storage at 6.5 million, more than double the three million that was in storage last year.

The DA is setting a meeting with local poultry industry leaders and stakeholders to discuss how they can manage their production and MAV allocation to correct the current oversupply without compromising the production for December.