San Miguel Corporation sees flat growth for Japan yakitori exports

Top yakitori exporter San Miguel Foods Inc. (SMFI), the food arm of San Miguel Corporation (SMC), sees flat growth for its Japan market in 2012 due to stiff competition.   The company expects to ship around 10 million kilograms of chicken yakitori this year, or the same volume as in 2011.   “The market is very competitive. [Volume is] about the same [this year compared to last year],” company vice president for poultry Rita Imelda Palabyab said in an interview Tuesday.   Though the company is equipped to take on more volume, competition with other chicken suppliers like Thailand tightened due to Japan’s huge demand for chicken yakitori.   Company data showed that chicken exports to Japan peaked in 2011 as volume went up to almost 10 million kilos from about 3 million kilos in 2010.   Palabyab said that the surge in demand was an offshoot of more yakitori restaurants opening in Japan, particularly in Tokyo.   The company is also interested in penetrating other markets in Asia and the Middle East. However, Japan will continue to be the company's major market for yakitori chicken, accounting for 90 percent of the company’s shipments.   Meanwhile the company has chosen to withhold testing the Korean market until a full market assessment is conducted, despite the country’s frozen meat market opening to Philippine chicken.    “[That] prospect is not clear so far,” said Palabyab.   Government data showed that total Philippine yakitori exports to Japan reached 3.51 million kilograms in 2010. This was 63 percent higher than the 2.15 million kilos of yakitori chicken exported in 2009.   San Miguel is the country's top exporter of yakitori chicken to Japan. Other local players are Reitoh Cold Storage Corp., Silangan Filtrade, and Win-Win Inc.   San Miguel Poultry is a division of San Miguel Pure Foods Company Inc. Its operations include broiler breeding, hatching, growing, and processing using company-owned and contracted facilities.   Company flagship brands Magnolia Chicken and Purefoods Supermanok lead the poultry market, being the brands of choice among major food service outlets as well as in supermarkets and wet markets. — AL/VS, GMA News