Critics claim poultry imports soared by 371%

POULTRY raisers have denounced anew government claims that “deboned” meat is not “locally available” and dismissed misleading data that imports dropped in 2020, as Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) data showed these shot up by 371 percent, including fully finished whole chicken.

The slowdown in import arrivals claimed by the Department of Agriculture (DA) on its online statement, “Drop in poultry imports bodes well for local industry,” was misleading, poultry raisers claimed, adding the shortage was artificial, as it was caused only by logistics problems due to the lockdowns caused by the coronavirus disease 2019.

But newly released actual BAI data showed cumulative imports from January to May this year of chicken cuts skyrocketed by 140.57 percent to 22,941 million kilos from only 9.536 million kilos in January to May in 2019.

Another perplexing data is the importation from the same period of whole chicken at 545,406 kilos, a 371.43- percent increase from last year. Imports of chicken leg quarters was at 43.445 million kilos for the first five months, a 45.21-percent increase.

Total imported chicken products ballooned to 178.334 million kilos, an increase of 50.34 percent from 118.616 million kilos in the same period last year. Imports of offals grew to 1.061 million kilos or by 32.97 percent. Only fats and rind skin recorded a decline in imports from January to May at 1.513 million kilos for fats, down 11.68 percent. Rind and skin dropped by 52.19 percent to 398,404 million kilos.

Mechanically deboned meat ( MDM) imports climbed to 108.428 million kilos, up 45.21 percent.

The importation of deboned meat is a major bone of contention of the United Broiler Raisers Association (UBRA) in a new open letter to Agriculture Secretary William Dar dated June 15.

“The importation agenda and mindset prevented such a development. There has been a significant increasing trend in both the total imports and the key composite items in the last five years,” the group said in a statement.

“BAI attempts to minimize the threat of imports by saying that 70 percent is MDM, fats, offals, and rind/skin used by industrial processors,” it added.

UBRA added that after the former senator Edgardo Angara’s tenure as Agriculture secretary, importation of agriculture products “dominated the policy landscape,” adding that the country’s Southeast Asian neighbors gave more support to its agricultural producers. Angara was Agriculture secretary from 1999 to 2001.