DA assures enough poultry supply amid alert vs bird flu

MANILA, Philippines - The Agriculture Department reassured consumers Monday of sufficient supply of poultry amid its heightened alert for bird flu from at least five countries. Agriculture Assistant Secretary Salvador Salacup said poultry associations have assured him of enough supply for the first and second quarters of 2009. "Sabi nila first and second quarter of 2009, sapat ang kanilang supply. Nagkaroon ng kaunting pagsipa last week, because of feed ingredients particularly corn, patuka. 55% ng isang sako ng patuka ay corn [We got an assurance from them of sufficient supply for the first and second quarters of 2009. There was a slight price hike last week because of shortage of corn in feed ingredients. Corn accounts for 55 percent of each sack of feed]," he said in an interview on dzBB radio. He said that as of now, the Philippines is on "heightened alert" for bird flu especially for products from China, Germany, Nepal, Belgium and British Columbia in Canada. Last Friday, he said authorities already confiscated a 40-foot refrigerated van with Peking duck and breast fillet and choice cuts of pork and beef from China. Salacup said the supply of corn in the last two weeks of December and the first weeks was tight. But now, he said poultry prices had gone down from P120 to 125 per kilo to P115 to 120 per kilo. Also, Salacup said fish prices are going down as fuel prices go down and the temperature goes up. On the other hand, he said they expect corn prices to go down anew by April, after the harvest peak in the last week of March. Meanwhile, the National Meat Inspection Service said it will conduct regular on-the-spot checking of meat products, dzXL radio reported. - GMANews.TV