The country’s broiler production could expand by nearly 17 percent to 1.4 billion heads this year on the back of favorable weather and the entry of new industry players, according to the United Broiler Raisers Association (Ubra).
“Our initial report indicated that potential production this year could reach 1.4 billion broilers,” Ubra President Elias Jose M. Inciong told the BusinessMirror.
“That is based on breeders, and that’s only gross, meaning there’s no input yet of mortality, which is about 5 percent and other factors, such as weather and diseases,” Inciong added.
Last year the Ubra official said the local poultry sector produced an estimated 1.2 billion heads. For 2017, broiler output would be boosted by the entry of more players into the local poultry industry.
The Ubra official earlier told the BusinessMirror that only extreme weather condition could cut poultry production this year.
Currently, he said, the average farm-gate price of chicken is declining due to oversupply. Farm-gate price rose to as much as P80 per kilogram in mid-December 2016, but it declined to below the P60 mark right after Christmas.
“Right now things are volatile. There are weeks wherein the price is down, and there are times it’s high,” Inciong said, adding that the current farm-gate price of chicken is P80 per kg.
In its report, titled “Performance of Philippine Agriculture,” the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the average farm-gate price of chicken in 2016 settled at P89.27 per kg. “Prices in the poultry subsector declined by an average of 5.22 percent. The price of chicken contracted by 9.26 percent as a result of expansion in production,” the PSA said.
In the same report, the PSA said the poultry sector, which accounted for 15.03 percent of the total agricultural output, grew by 1.39 percent in 2016 year-on-year.
The poultry sector was valued at P123.473 billion in 2016, higher than the P121.776 billion recorded in 2015. The chicken industry alone was valued at P94.508 billion in 2016, higher than 2015’s P93.736 billion.
The volume of chicken produced in 2016 expanded slightly to 1.67 million metric tons (MMT), from 1.66 MMT recorded volume in 2015.
The government bared its plan to hike poultry production by 3 percent to 4 percent annually starting this year, until President Duterte steps down from office, according to the draft chapter of the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022.