Chicken future

By Marifi Jara

I LOVE chicken.

101 ways: Lechon manok; marinated in sweet barbecue-style sauce and grilled; tinola cooked with lots of ginger, chili leaves, and sayote; adobo; afritada; cooked in curry and coconut milk; in macaroni soup; ground and made into hamburger patties (a healthier alternative to beef); Chinese-style with soy and sesame oil; or, and this one is what I consider one of my comfort food, simply sprinkled with a bit of salt and fried to a golden crisp.

Filipinos in general love chicken I believe. Why else do all the fastfood chains here, local or international franchises, have chicken on their menu?

In the bigger economic picture, chicken could prove to be our next big business hero.

The Department of Agriculture is bullish about the poultry industry given its good performance last year and it has cited Pangasinan as one of the five major growth areas for this sector. The other provinces are Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Quezon and Iloilo.

Reckon this: According to the DA, chicken production is seen to reach 1.24 million metric tons this year from 1.21 million metric tons last year. The 2006 production was equivalent to a gross output value of almost P82 billion, accounting for the third largest contribution to the country’s agriculture industry at 9.2%.

On a more tangible note: We are currently exporting breeder day-old chicks to our neighbors in the Asian region like Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and even as far as Nepal. And we are sending processed chickens to Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Dubai, Iran, Mauritius, and the United States. And frozen chicken are exported to Japan and the United Arab Emirates.

In addition to these existing markets, the government is setting its sightson China, the largest growing economy in the world, for heat processed poultry meat as well as Singapore, the largest meat importer in the world, alongside Indonesia and Malaysia for halal products. Other poultry-related products are being eyed for the European Union and Hong Kong.

One of the main factors that makes this grand dream for the Philippine poultry industry realistic and possible is our success at staying free from the bird flu virus. All of our immediate Asian neighbors have already been hit at varying levels.

I always take government-formed task forces with a grain of salt, but the National Avian Influenza Task Force (NAITF), created in 2005, seems to be doing a great job at   keeping  a close watch both on our borders and the internal poultry industry – including the large, medium and small scale operators – and maintaining a  high alert level on this threat.  

I recently had a chance to chat with Dr. Samuel Animas, chief of the DA’s Bureau of Animal Industry’s Animal Health Division and the national project coordinator for the NAITF, and he said they are not relaxing on their anti-bird flu efforts because it can readily and easily hit us.

Dr. Animas said the NAITF’s comprehensive Avian Influenza Protection Program includes a strict  importation ban, quarantine measures at all entry ports, regular   surveillance activities particularly in areas near wetlands which are classified as high risk due to the presence of migratory birds, and a continued information campaign.

The stage seems to be set for a bright chicken future.

Pangasinan, which already is a major agricultural province, should not pass up on this chance.

We got to love chicken.

(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/roots/)

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