Demand for chicken remains slow in the Philippines

Demand for chicken in the Philippines is not yet picking up despite the start of the Christmas season, and the local poultry industry is not expecting a recovery anytime soon. United Broilers Raisers Association (UBRA) Chairman Gregorio San Diego Jr. told Business Bulletin that one of the biggest problems in the poultry industry is still low demand, worsened by the continuous entry of imported supply. “This is a big problem for us. The demand is still low. People don’t have enough money and food has given way to some more important home expenditures like water, electricity, phone bills, and internet,” San Diego said. Aside from low demand, San Diego said local raisers are still competing with a lot of imported supply, which is making it extra hard for them to deal with rising production costs. “The broiler industry is still struggling amid the increase in imports that the government is promoting aggressively. This, coupled with the very high feed cost today. Yellow corn is now ...