The country’s chicken egg production has increased further, something that has been causing problems for producers.
Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that the country’s total chicken egg production from April to June 2021 was estimated at 167,930 metric tons (MT). This was higher by 13.1 percent compared with the previous year’s same quarter output of 148,450 metric tons (MT).
Among the regions, CALABARZON was the top producer of chicken egg during the quarter with a production of 56,110 MT. This was followed by Central Luzon with 33,730 MT and Central Visayas with 16,490 MT. These three regions accounted for 63.3 percent of the country’s total chicken egg production.
Compared with their levels in the same quarter of 2020, 13 regions documented increments in production during the quarter. MIMAROPA Region recorded the highest annual growth of 33.6 percent, from 1,730 MT in the second quarter of 2020 to 2,310 MT this quarter of 2021.
From January to June, the country’s egg production went up by 8 percent to a record level of 320,000 MT.
In an interview, United Broilers Raisers Association (UBRA) Chairman Gregorio San Diego Jr. said the increase in the country’s egg production is already causing problems for producers.
He said that because of the declining demand for chicken, a lot of commercial producers ventured into egg production, pushing the supply higher to the detriment of the small producers.
“Even the big players went into egg production. The demand for egg, unfortunately, is also declining. People don’t have money anymore. Baking in households has tempered. Egg producers will soon be affected . Small players will be eased out from the competition,” San Diego, who also serves as the chairman of the Philippine Egg Board Association, said.
As of September 7, the price of medium egg per piece stood at P6.50, which slightly inched up from last month's prevailing price of P6 apiece, based on the latest price monitoring report of the Department of Agriculture (DA).
As for the average farmgate price of chicken eggs in commercial farms from April to June, PSA observed it to be around P5.50 per piece. This was -1.8 percent lower than the average farmgate price of P5.60 per piece in the same period of 2020.
During the reference quarter, the highest farmgate price of chicken egg was observed in April at P5.61 per piece, while the lowest was in June at P5.42 per piece.
Meanwhile, chicken laying flock inventory as of July was estimated at 60.64 million birds. This indicates an increase of 6.4 percent from its level of 57.00 million birds in the same period of 2020. Population of native/improved chicken and layer chicken posted increments of 1.3 percent and 9.8 percent, respectively.
Of the total laying flock, 38.0 percent were native/improved chicken and 62.0 percent accounted for layer chicken.
Among the regions, CALABARZON had the highest population of chicken laying flock with 13.83 million birds, followed by Central Luzon with 10.78 million birds and Northern Mindanao with 5.88 million birds. The combined population of these three regions accounted for 50.3 percent of the country’s total chicken laying flock.
It was in January when UBRA President Bong Inciong first said that a lot of hog and broiler raisers have shifted to layer poultry farming or chicken egg production amid the pandemic, pushing the country’s supply of eggs high over the last few weeks of 2020.
For hog raisers, the reason for the shift was African Swine Fever (ASF), while broiler raisers had to deal with an oversupply amid COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and the influx of poultry imports, Inciong said.
“The volume of production of eggs is high. Those who lost livelihood in hog and poultry raising all shifted there. Consumers are assured of enough supply of eggs. This can be their only protein source if we run out of pork and chicken,” Inciong said in an earlier report.