Agri chief Piñol discourages chicken importation

As the poultry sector recovers from the bird flu outbreak, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol sees no urgent need to import chicken for the Christmas season.

"No. We have enough chicken supply," Piñol said in an interview after a breakfast forum at Klub Filipino in San Juan City on Thursday.

"In fact, I'm discouraging importation because ngayon lang bumabawi ang mga farmers," Piñol said.

The farm gate price of chicken in bird flu-hit Pampanga and Nueva Ecija has returned to P95 per kilo compared with P10 to P15 during the avian flu outbreak in August, the Cabinet official noted.

"They're recovering now. In fact, mataas na ulit ang presyo ng manok," he said. — VDS, GMA News