Bolivians consuming more poultry products

The per capita egg consumption in Bolivia increased from 130 units to 143 units last year, meanwhile chicken meat consumption rose from 35 kilos to 38 kilos per capita. The production of both poultry products therefore has increased significantly in the last five years.

According to a study by the Bolivian Institute of Foreign Trade (IBCE) during 2013 egg production in Bolivia exceeded 1,500 million units and recorded a growth of 11% over 2012.

The department of Santa Cruz is the largest egg producer, with 59% share in total and an offer of 881 million units for the whole country. Cochabamba followes with 522 million units and in the rest of the country 101 million units are produced.

The Cooperativa Agropecuaria Integral San Juan de Yapacaní (CAISY) focuses on the poultry, with the sector representing about 80% of the economic movement of the cooperative. The cooperative has a total of 71 poultry partners with an average production of 20 million eggs per month, which are sold in the cities of La Paz, El Alto and Santa Cruz de la Sierra. This represents approximately 30% of the supply of the domestic market.

The union is concerned about the quality from the first stage of production, which is the distribution of laying pullets to their partners, so they import directly genetic line ISA Brown from Brazil.

In the period 2008-2013, broiler production reached more than 939 million birds, obtaining a peak in 2013 of 180 million, according to the report of IBCE. Half of the total supply of Bolivia comes from Santa Cruz, meanwhile Cochabamba represents 42%.

Production of broiler meat increased from 294,000 tons in 2008 to 396,000 tons in 2013, i.e. an increase of 35%. The data show that per capita consumption in six years grew by 23%. For example, until 2008, each person consumed 31 kilos per year, but in 2012 it reached 35 kilos and management passed to 38 kilos, the report said.