Poultry group confident
The leader of a group of poultry producers expects the sector to grow this year due to the increase in supply of breeders, barring substantial damage from storms.
“Generally, we see an increase in production for the rest of the year [from last year]. What will undermine the potential growth is the quality and supply of feeds and the climate,” Elias Jose M. Inciong, executive vice-president of the Union of Broilers and Raisers Association, said in a phone interview.
He declined to give specific growth estimates.
Noting the Agriculture department’s projected decline in the second and third quarters in the local production of corn, a key raw material used in feeds, Mr. Inciong said regular importation should be able to make up for production shortfalls. “There is regular importation of raw materials for feeds to cover shortage of local supply,” he said.
Corn production dropped 16.8% to 1.6 million metric tons (MT) in the first quarter from 1.92 million MT last year, data from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) show.
Output of this crop is estimated by the Agriculture department to have dropped 36.92% this quarter to 820,000 MT from 1.3 million MT, year on year, and further decrease by 6.3% to 2.22 million MT next quarter from 2.37 million MT.
Storms, however, are a more difficult obstacle to surmount, Mr. Inciong said, explaining “We can only prepare so much, because you can’t stop such weather occurrences.”
Chicken production, which accounts for nearly three-fourths of poultry output, grew 1.81% to 332,090 MT in the first quarter from 326,180 MT, year on year, BAS data show.
“The chicken industry experienced slight increases in the number of dressed chicken from dressing plants, complemented by recovery in production among rehabilitated commercial farms which were affected by last quarter’s typhoons,” BAS said.
Chicken eggs rose 4.43% to 94,560 MT from 90,550 MT, driven by a higher inventory of layers in the regions of Central Luzon, CALABARZON, Central Visayas and Northern Mindanao.
But duck output, which makes up 20%-25% of poultry production, dipped 5.55% to 9,790 MT from 10,370 MT, BAS data showed. “Lesser pasture areas for ducks, coupled with high cost of feeds, resulted in lesser inventory of ducks for meat production,” BAS had said in its first-quarter report.
Duck eggs also decreased by 5.87% to 9,300 MT from 9,880 MT due to lower inventory of layers and a “low egg-laying efficiency ratio” because of the hot weather.
Last year, the country produced 1.3 million MT of chicken meat, 368,460 MT of chicken eggs, 35,940 MT of duck meat, and 39,630 MT of duck eggs. BusinessWorld
