THE average price of dressed chicken among markets in Negros Occidental has dropped anew amid the existing bird flu outbreak in Luzon.
Latest Weekly Prevailing Market Price of Livestock and Poultry Report of the Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO), covering August 15 to 21, showed that current average price of dressed chicken in the province is P155.11 per kilogram.
The figure is lower by P1.46 per kilogram from the previous week’s monitoring of P156.57 per kilogram.
During the last week of July, the PVO reported that a kilogram of dressed chicken was averagely sold at higher price of P158.79 per kilogram.
Dr. Ryan Janoya, head of Animal Health and Meat Inspection Services Inspection Division, on Tuesday, August 22, said the low demand for the commodity has pulled the price down.
He said although the decrease is negligible the bird flu outbreak in Pampanga and lately in Nueva Ecija has created “fear” among some consumers in the province resulting to reduction in consumption.
“The decrease is still within the normal range for dressed chicken,” Janoya said, adding that for movement of prices to be significant it should be at least P3 per kilogram.
For live animals, current average slaughterhouse price of broiler is P102.81 per head. It is lower by P1.24 compared to P104.05 in the previous week.
Price of native chicken, meanwhile, has dropped by P6.46 per head. From P179.17 on August 14 monitoring, it went down to P172.71 per head.
Janoya said the province still has surplus in supply of chicken, however, there is a reduction of demand thus, prices would surely go down.
“We would like reassure the consuming public that our local stocks are free from avian influenza,” Janoya said, adding that quarantine and other safety measures in the province remain in place.
Meanwhile, the PVO reported a slight increase in the average price of eggs in the province.
Prevailing price ranges from P5.60 to P8.93 per piece depending on size. The increase ranges from P0.02 to P0.25 per piece, it added.
Janoya said that, like chicken, the increase in price of egg is also insignificant which can be attributed to the huge supply from local producers.
“The local production was able to sustain the province’s consumption requirement,” he said, adding that during the bird flu outbreak, Panay provinces have even tried sourcing eggs from Negros Occidental, but local producers decided to prioritize the province’s requirement.
Paravet meeting
The PVO, meanwhile, conducted a meeting with presidents of 18 paravet associations in the province at its office in Bacolod City on Tuesday.
Participants were oriented on the bird flu, especially how to prevent the virus from infecting poultry products.
Janoya said PVO’s preparedness plan includes educating the paravets so that they can help spread the right information to the people in the grassroots level.
“We want to make the community become more ready in dealing with this situation so that it can implement necessary measures immediately,” he added.