THE province’s poultry raisers are seriously suffering from huge losses on account of high production costs and low selling price of P4.77 largely because of oversupply of eggs in Pangasinan.

This was disclosed by Reynaldo Ang, former president and spokesman of the Tarlac-Pangasinan Egg Producers Association, during the Question Hour of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) last Monday at the instance of  Fifth District Board Member Chinky Perez-Tababa to probe why egg producers are lamenting the continuing plunge in egg’s price.

Ang told the SP that while eggs produced in Pangasinan are more than enough for local  consumption, the current market price cannot cover the production costs.

He said while price of chicken feeds which represents 85 percent of their expenses today, there are more players today competing with each other, resulting in over production of eggs and consequently lower price for the oversupply.

With the onset of the African Swine Fever in 2019, many hog raisers were encouraged by the Department of Agriculture to embark on poultry raising.

According to Ang, there were investors that also embarked on raising ready-to-lay chicken, and who after six to eight weeks, sell these to egg producers. These again increased the number of people into the layer industry.

That was the start of the decline of the price of eggs in the market.

He also cited feed companies who encouraged rice farmers to raise chicken in the face of mounting losses due to the rice tariffication.

All these resulted in oversupply of chicks and eventually eggs not only in Pangasinan but also in other parts of the country, said Ang.

As of April 2021, producers spent P4.09 to produce one egg and sold for P4.44. But because of the soaring price of feeds, the production cost per egg on October 2021, it went up to  P4.58 while market price remained P4.44.

In November 2021, in the middle of the pandemic, the production cost rose to P4.72 per egg and sold for P4.72, and the situation became worse when their poultry was infected by pests and diseases.

He said the oversupply from Tarlac and Nueva Vizcaya aggravated the situation further.

To help the affected poultry industry, Ang said strict monitoring at border checkpoints checking agricultural products entering Pangasinan should ensure that poultry products are not coming from provinces infected with the dreaded bird flu or avian flu.

The executive order of Governor Amado Espino III already suspended the entry of quails and ducks from Pampanga where avian flu was detected. (Leonardo Micua)

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