P50-M poultry dressing plant for backyard raisers eyed

THE Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) of Negros Occidental is eyeing next year the construction of the P50-million dressing plant that will benefit especially small poultry growers.

Provincial Veterinarian Renante Decena said most of the dressed chicken products in Bacolod being sourced from other local government units (LGUs) in the province do not pass through dressing plants.

This is why the Provincial Government has been working on providing post-harvest facilities to local poultry integrators, he said.

"We will meet with poultry integrators on Monday to finalize the proposed establishment of dressing plant, which is subject to the approval of the governor," Decena said.

The P50-million budget includes the building component as well as equipment like cold storage, ice maker, and trucks.

The plant will be situated at the Capitol-owned property beside the rice processing center at Barangay Tabunan in Bago City.

Decena said the facility is centrally located for commercial farms operating in the province.

Once operational, the dressing plant will cater mainly to integrators who can qualify as backyard scale producers.

Their production should be lower than those of commercial growers, whose minimum production is 3,000 to 5,000 heads.

Under the project, the province will gather 10 small raisers in every village with production of 200 heads each. Thus, each barangay will have a backyard production of 2,000 heads.

Through this scheme, it would be easy to collect, harvest and provide inputs to the farmer-raisers, Decena said.

He said the return on investment would also be faster, and biosecurity can be ensured as there is only small number of farmers involved.

“Like what we have experienced in hogs, it would be easier to grow in a backyard scale," he said, adding that the project is also positioned to provide jobs and boost livelihood of small poultry raisers.

At present, there are only three licensed dressing plants in Negros Occidental, but cannot yet cater to the entire local poultry business.

Decena said one of these plants situated in Silay City may have problems with its land use plan due to a theme park project there.

In terms of rate, these commercial dressers collect P8 per head.

“Once the Capitol-run dressing plant is operational, it would not only augment the three existing facilities but also provide cheaper cost for the poultry growers,” he added.

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