Poultry growth may resume as
Japan lifts ban
By Luzi Ann Javier
Bloomberg

PHILIPPINE poultry production may resume growth in the second half after Japan lifted a ban it imposed last year following the discovery of a bird flu strain in ducks in Bulacan province, a government official said.
       Second-half output may rise 3 percent from a year earlier, Felix Valenzuela, deputy director of the National Livestock Development Council, said in an interview in Manila Thursday. Production may fall 3 percent in this quarter, he said.
       Poultry production growth fell in the second half of last year and the first quarter of 2006 as duck raisers cut production after the bird flu strain was discovered in some farms in Bulacan, the province directly north of Manila. The government said at the time it was a “low risk’” strain. While chickens weren’t affected, Japan banned all poultry imports from the Philippines.
       The Philippines started exporting chicken products to Japan in January last year after Japan banned imports from Thailand, a regular supplier, after bird flu spread in that country, resulting in as many as 14 human deaths.
       The Philippines shipped 2 million kilograms of chicken to Japan from January to July, Valenzuela said.
       Agriculture Secretary Domingo Panganiban said Wednesday the Japanese ambassador had informed him the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry had declared Philippine poultry safe and lifted the ban.
       Poultry— made up of chicken and ducks -- comprises about 13 percent of Philippine agricultural production.
       Poultry production figures may start to increase in 45 days, Valenzuela said. That’s the standard age at which the birds are sold, he said.