Govt: No special chicken imports for 2011 holiday season

As the holiday season nears, government said Tuesday it will not issue special importation certificates to chicken traders because of a surplus in chicken parts production during the first half of the year. “There is no shortage of chicken. We have enough surpluses to tide us through the coming holiday season," Bureau of Animal Industry director Efren Nuestro said. Government records show that frozen chicken meat inventory is at 7,642 metric tons (MT) or 7.64 million kilograms as of June 21. The National Statistics Office, meanwhile, reports that the chicken imports hit 98 million kilos or 98,000 MT in 2010, amounting to $58.04 million. Last year’s importations hit high levels because of a shortage in chicken meat spurred by Tropical Storm Ondoy and Typhoon Pepeng. Last year’s chicken imports were nearly 60 percent higher than the 61.44 million kilos imported in 2009 when the government issued special importation permits. No special importation permits were issued in 2010. Backyard raisers According to the Agricultural Statistics Bureau, the volume of chicken meat imports in the first and second quarters of 2010 were higher by 214.25 percent and 100.01 percent, respectively. Shipments increased even if the price of imported chicken rose by 65.14 percent last year. Earlier, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said that there would be no need to import beyond the regular allocation under the Minimum Access Volume (MAV) because of the industry’s good performance. MAV is the minimum volume allowed by World Trade Organization members to enter countries at lower tariff rates. For 2011, the MAV is pegged at around 23,490 MT. As of June 21, only 52 percent or 12,000 MT of the MAV has been used. Small-scale chicken raisers have asked government to suspend the special importation permits to allow the industry a level of profitability in order to continue operations despite low farm-gate prices of locally-produced chicken. Small-scale and backyard chicken raisers have lobbied for the suspension of the special importation permit to allow the industry a small level of profitability and continue operating. — BC/VS, GMA News