DA says pork, chicken, rice supply enough for holidays

A top official of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said Thursday that the country has sufficient supply of pork and chicken meat for the incoming rise in demand due to the holiday season.

Agriculture Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban also allayed fears of rice supply shortage after Typhoon Karding ravaged crop lands in Luzon.

During state-run PTV’s public briefing, Panganiban said “[sa] aming pagtataya, hindi di magkakaroon ng kakulangan sa karneng baboy ngayong holiday season.”

(Based on our estimates, there will be no shortage in the supply of pork this holiday season.)

He said that by the end of the last quarter of 2022, the supply of pork will be good for 61 days.

For chicken meat, the DA official said there is an expected surplus of in the third and fourth quarters of the year.

In particular, Panganiban said that for the third quarter there will be 180,888 metric tons and 181,043 metric tons (MT) of surplus chicken meat in the third and fourth quarter, respectively.

“Mayroon tayong sapat na sa supply sa loob ng 40 araw (We have sufficient supply for 40 days),” he said.

Based on the DA’s Philippine Food Supply, Demand, and Sufficiency Outlook for 2022, the total broiler supply for the year is 1.82 million MT against a projected demand of around 1.64 million MT for the year.

On the other hand, the DA official also said there will be no shortage of rice supply in the coming year.

Panganiban said the country maintains a 60-day buffer stock to ensure that supply and prices will be stable next year.

Rice is the most affected crop with a total value of production loss at P1.66 billion following Karding’s onslaught.

About 145,229 hectares of rice lands were flattened by the weather disturbance with a total volume loss of 105,154 MT.

The overall damage and losses sustained by the agriculture sector due to the typhoon amounted to P2.02 billion as of Thursday morning. —LBG, GMA News