Philippine exporter sees niche market in chicken parent stocks

The Philippines and other Asian countries have been used to importing chicken parent stocks from the US or Europe. Now that bird flu has infected even western countries’ parent stock, URC is trying to displace these imports.

“It’s an opportunity that has been opened us because of the bird flu crisis. Traditionally, we’ve been dependent on importation of parent stocks. Asian countries are starting to realize that we can’t always depend on the US and Europe for the supply of parent stocks because of these diseases,” said URC’s William Lim.

URC has also been able to export parent stocks to Malaysia. Aside from this, there are potential markets too in Indonesia and Bangladesh. With a 600,000-head yearly production of dressed chicken, the country needs about four to five million parent stocks each year. Parent stocks are breeders and are used to produce day-old chicks for fattening and dressing.

The Philippines faces a very promising market for poultry in 2007 because of its having remained bird flu-free. The broiler sector sees around 8,000 to 10,000 mt of chicken barbecue yakitori and other special preparations to Japan.