Agri Department Okays More Chicken Imports
THE PHILIPINNES - The agriculture department is likely to approve the importation of more chickens because of a shortage and the projected increase in demand during the Christmas season, an official said yesterday.
29 August 2007
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| The Philippines imported a record 32 million kilos of chicken in the last quarter last year. |
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said the three million kilos of chicken that importers were proposing to buy would comprise less than 1 percent of the Philippines’ annual consumption of 450 million head, and it would be temporary.
He said the increase in importation would take care of the traditional increase in demand in the last quarter.
“In the same manner, the [chicken] shortage is also the reason for the increase in egg prices,” he said.
Yap said the Philippines imported a record 32 million kilos of chicken in the last quarter last year, and that created a glut that discouraged poultry raisers from producing more birds in the first quarter this year.
The drought in the succeeding months made the shortage worse, he said.
