Easy access to crucial information will guide poultry farm managers in setting production targets that accurately reflect prevailing consumer demand
Philippine’s local food producers have urged the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) to establish in 2024 a long-delayed agricultural statistics database that will be available to all stakeholders online.
In an interview, Elias Jose Inciong, president of the United Broiler Raisers Association (UBRA), said having easy access to crucial information will guide poultry farm managers in setting production targets that accurately reflect prevailing consumer demand.
He partially attributed the current oversupply of chicken meat to uninformed decision-making by local growers and importers.
“Poultry farms produced aggressively in anticipation of higher demand during the holidays. Importation of frozen chicken was just as aggressive for the same reason. But the expected high demand did not materialise… resulting in the oversupply of chicken we are seeing today,” Inciong said.
He said the glut in chicken meat has caused farm gate prices to drop to levels where poultry farmers are hardly breaking even with their investments.
Inciong said having a digital repository of agriculture data will help both entrepreneurs and government policy-makers make better decisions, drawn from the same vetted body of information.
