Price of chicken shoots up as poultry raisers lower production

Inquirer file photo

MANILA, Philippines — The price of chicken in public markets has gone up to “a record high,” selling for as much as P250 per kilogram, around P5 to P30 more compared to last week, as many poultry raisers have reduced production due to importation and after incurring losses last year.

However, an official of the United Broiler Raisers Association (Ubra), composed mostly of small and medium-scale poultry producers, called the prevailing market prices “too high,” saying that chicken meat should be sold at just P230 per kg.

Based on the monitoring of the Department of Agriculture (DA), the retail price of a kilo of dressed whole chicken ranged from a low of P190 to a high of P250 in Metro Manila markets as of July 15.

READ: Gov’t urged to put moratorium on chicken importation

This was higher than the P160 to P200 per kg recorded around the same period last year. Last week, the retail chicken prices were between P185 and P220 per kg.

In the second week of June, the price range for chicken was between P160 and P220.

Ubra president Jose Gerardo Feliciano said at the sidelines of the Poultry Show Forum in Pasay City that the selling price for chicken shot up after many local raisers opted to mitigate their losses by reducing production amid the influx into the country of imported chicken.

Poultry raisers also decided to hike their prices in one go instead of doing it in tranches, according to him.

Normal decision

“What we noticed is it is an offshoot of what happened last year when many poultry raisers sustained losses. It’s a normal business decision to lower production volume, resulting in lower supply,” Feliciano said. “Of course, one big factor in the pricing of chicken is importation.”

He added, however, that some industry players might be taking advantage of the current situation, leading to a surge in prices.

Still, he said that the current prices were at a “record high” as the average farm-gate price (or the price between farmers and traders, which is largely influenced by the latter) was at P137 per kg earlier this month compared with P118.75 per kg during the same period last year.

“Let us assume the farm-gate price is P150 for computation purposes. We see that the retail price should be around P220 to P230 only,” Feliciano noted.

But he said retail price was expected to drop by late August as the rainy season bodes well for raising chickens.