US Chicken Producer Perdue Farms Eyes Philippines As Asia's Production Hub - US - Leading US chicken producer Perdue Farms plans to make the Philippines its production hub for processed chicken for export to other countries in Asia, Trade and Industry Secretary Cesar Purisima said.

Maryland-based Perdue Farms will enter into a joint venture with international freight and logistics service provider Royal Cargo Combined Logistics Inc, which has a refrigeration facility in Laguna province, south of Manila.

"One of the things they want to do is to send chicken from the US to the Philippines for further processing then for export primarily to Japan," Purisima said.

The Philippines has so far remained free of the bird flu virus, which had hit at least 10 countries in the Asian region.

Perdue is looking at an initial quantity of 10,000 metric tons of chicken for further processing at the Laguna facility.

"If the project materializes then we will be in the chicken supply map of Japan... This will be done quickly and within the next few weeks they will be operating already," Purisima said.

Japan consumes an average of 1.7 million metric tons of chicken annually, 500,000 tons of which are imported, primarily from Thailand.

Philippine government officials are negotiating between local chicken integrators and Japanese trading houses for possible shipments after Japan banned chicken imports from bird flu-afflicted countries.

Source: eFeedLink - 23th February 2004