From fresh to processed eggs

The third top commodity in poultry and livestock sub-sector with 5.7 percent growth in volume wants more income with a processing plant. The layer industry currently worth P18.2 billion– through the Philippine Egg Board (PEB)– is pushing for a liquid egg processing plant costing P116 million.

The Department of Agriculture wants to go further than that. Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr. said: "To boost their competitiveness, I’ve asked the egg board to go for both liquid and powdered egg plants and we in the government will do our share in helping them turn their vision into viable reality."

To date, PEB headed by Rizal poultry businessman Gregorio San Diego Jr. interacting with the Livestock Council and private consultancy firm, Datacon, has come up with a feasibility study development for a liquid egg processing plant.

Not too long ago, commercial clients of the country’s fresh eggs–mayonnaise and salad dressing producers and fastfood chains – patronized local eggs. Just as the egg industry is performing very well with increased production, comes now cheap imported eggs resulting in price drop and weakened orders from traditional bulk buyers.

The agriculture department places said the uptrend in imports of processed eggs–egg powder, dried yolk, liquid yolk, dried albumin and liquid albumin–has been very high at 163.3 percent in a span of only four years: 592.6 metric tons (MT) in 1998 to 1,560.5 MT in 2002.

On top of that increased imports, the egg industry notched a 14.8 percent upswing in the last five years with a record thumping 4.74 billion eggs. In peso terms, chicken eggs recorded P11,513.20 million (in 1998), P12,399.73 million (in 1999), P13,926.20 million (in 2000), P14,755.13 million (in 2001) and P16,629.88 million (in 2002).

Recorded growth rates were 7.70 percent (1998-99), 12.31 percent (1999-2000), 5.95 percent (2000-2001) and 12.71 percent (2001-2002).

With the operation of the proposed processing plant, the egg board hopes to sell at a uniform price of P90.40 per kilogram (kg) for liquid egg yolk, liquid egg white and liquid whole egg. The uniform price is way below the P107.18 per kg of imported liquid egg yolk and P214.26 per kg of imported egg white.

On the price difference and instant availability of the egg liquid products San Diego says "the sale of the egg industry’s production will be optimized as processing plants and industrial users will benefit from the competitive–even lower–price. Demand for more local eggs, could help stimulate farm gate price of local eggs which went down from P2.70 to P2.40 per piece during the last three weeks."

In spite of its creditable performance, the egg industry has problems needing attention from government and private business. Among them are: Increasing volume of imported processed eggs. Lower per capita consumption vis-á-vis other countries: e. g. Philippines (50); and Thailand (148). An increase of 20 eggs in per capita consumption will increase consumption of 84.5 million Filipinos by 1.7 million eggs.

Other difficulties are: negative impression of eggs high cholesterol which is not true. High cost of production due to high cost of raw materials. Downselling of fertile or brown eggs for broiler chick production at very low prices to table eggs as a consequence of the importation of chicken and chicken parts. And distorted retail prices

Aside from the DA’s financial assistance to facility for both liquid and dried egg products, the agency is pushing for the following concerns, as well:

Rationalized importation of processed egg products. Prioritize PL 480 to end users; reinforce support to corn farmers; lower tariff for corn substitute. Media promotion of the health benefits of eggs and research and development on the reduction of production cost is being worked out.

For its part, the egg industry is doing the following interventions: Self regulation of the Egg Board on the importation of the parent stocks of layers to stabilize the supply of table eggs in cooperation with the DA. Industry leaders are also advocating selling standardization of egg in kilos.

The layer industry has total dependents (persons employed and families) numbering some 599,591 individuals. Of the number, some 78,611 are directly employed in production and post production. Allied industries employ approximately 71,287 persons. They are in corn farming, feeds manufacturing, drugs and ingredients marketing/distribution, retailing, hauling, trucking and equipment manufacturing.

Given the chance, the egg industry is bound to roll on to greater contribution to the country’s economic activities.