Chicken supply more than enough ahead of Christmas season - agri groups

The supply of chicken in the country is expected to meet the anticipated increase in demand for the Christmas season even without importation due to oversupply, agriculture stakeholders said Tuesday.

In a statement, the agriculture stakeholders said that the poultry industry has been reeling from oversupply for months, which has resulted in declining farmgate prices.

United Broiler Raisers Association (UBRA) chairman Gregorio San Diego said that “based on the Department of Agriculture’s data, we will have a chicken surplus good for 114 days by year end.”

With this, San Diego said ''consumers will have more than enough chicken that they can buy in time for the Christmas season,'' when demand for chicken and many other farm commodities tends to pick up.

The UBRA chairman said a 45-day excess is the standard for the poultry industry.

Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM) president Edicio dela Torre said that based on the capacity of local producers across the past years, ''we have enough supply for the Christmas season, even if we don't import more.”

“The challenge to local producers is the increased inventory due to previous and new imports,” dela Torre said.

Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) executive director Jayson Cainglet said that supply will last until the first quarter of 2024.

“Imports usually peak in the last quarter, so you can expect more,” Cainglet said.

The SINAG official said farm gate prices will likely be lower, which should translate to lower retail prices.

“One indicator is that we have received reports that prices in some retail markets have gone down below the usual, even dipping below the average cost of local production,” dela Torre said.

Inventories in cold storage facilities are also overflowing, San Diego added.

UBRA, citing DA data, said that chicken imports have reached 290 million kilos as of end-August this year, higher than the 245 million kilos in the same period in 2022.

Another factor is the reduced consumption among Filipinos.

SINAG estimated that consumption is down by at least 20%.

“Because of the high prices of commodities, Filipino families are forced to eat less meat such as pork and chicken,” Cainglet said.

Newly appointed Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said earlier that his priority is to increase food production and modernize the agriculture sector.

Laurel said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. instructed him to modernize agriculture so that the country would be food secure and less dependent on imports. —VBL, GMA Integrated News