The liveweight price of broilers in Central Luzon has gone up to more than P60 per kilogram, but poultry growers in the region are still losing money, according to the United Broiler Raisers Association (Ubra).
Ubra President Elias Jose Inciong said the current farm-gate price of broiler is 20 percent higher than the P50 per kg recorded in previous weeks, but it is still not enough to cover the production cost of poultry growers.
“The farm-gate price for broiler in Central Luzon has breached P60 per kg, and in some areas in Luzon, there have been reports that it is at P65 per kg. However, this is still below our breakeven price,” Inciong told the BusinessMirror on the sidelines of the National Research Council of the Philippines’s forum on bird flu.
Before the government confirmed the outbreak of bird flu in Central Luzon last month, live broilers were sold at P75 per kg. This level, Inciong added, allows poultry growers to recoup their production cost.
The Ubra chief attributed the increase in farm-gate price to tightness in broiler supply in the region. Poultry growers in Central Luzon remain hesitant to restock their flocks as they want to make sure that bird flu has been eradicated.
As the holiday season approaches, Inciong said poultry growers have started to reload their flocks to take advantage of the expected increase in demand for broiler meat.
He noted that the price of a day-old chick (DOC) has recovered and has gone back to the usual P21, from P15.
“The recovery of the price of DOC to P21 could mean that some speculative growers are now buying and reloading their flocks”.
“I think when the price of DOCs dropped to below P15, a lot of growers started to buy chicks, as they expect that the price in the coming months would be better”, he added.
However, Inciong said the price of broilers may not be that “favorable” by December. As the Christmas season nears, he said the live- weight price is “lower than normal” because of oversupply.
“We cannot be sure if it would be better by [December], because there are a lot of factors to consider this time”, he said. “Besides, last-quarter prices are not that good because there is a lot of supply in the market. We are hopeful that everything normalizes before Christmas, but it is really hard to say right now”, Inciong added.
While bird flu struck mostly commercial layers, the farm-gate price of broilers took a hit because consumers panicked over the government’s discovery of the outbreak.
Earlier, the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) told the BusinessMirror that poultry growers remained hesitant in reloading their flocks as indicated by
the declining price of DOC early this month.
The BAI also revealed that the cleaning and disinfection of the farms struck by bird flu in San Luis, Pampanga, have been completed on September 21. This means that the 21-day rest period prior to the release of sentinel birds has started in affected farms, according to BAI Animal Health and Welfare Division Officer in Charge Ronnie D. Domingo. “Maybe by December 20, [the San Luis farm] could be declared bird flu-free,” Domingo told reporters in an interview on September 26.