DESPITE a sufficient supply of chicken in the region, the price of the commodity remains high in Cebu due to increased demand and rising production costs.
Vendors are calling on government to act swiftly as they struggle with the high costs and a decrease in profit margins.
A male fried chicken vendor interviewed by SunStar Cebu called for a return to pre-holiday prices of P170 per kilo for whole chicken which allowed him to earn more.
He said the rising cost of chicken meat has impacted small businesses that rely on affordable stocks to maintain their profit margins.
“If whole chicken is sold at P170, we are able to have almost 40 percent profit. Now that it’s sold at P210 per kilo, we only have 20 to 30 percent margin. Then we have to spend for other expenses like LPG and cooking oil,” the vendor said in Cebuano.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the food vendor also said the rising costs of LPG and cooking oil ( from P170 to P195 per liter) also made things tighter for vendors like him.
He expressed concern that if chicken prices continue to stay above P200, many small businesses like theirs will struggle to stay afloat.
He said despite the high costs, he has not increased the prices of the fried chicken that he sells which remained at P25 to P35 since he started selling in July 2024 due to competition.
‘Insufficient’
A staff member of ICY’s Crispy Chicken along Junquera St., Cebu City, shared similar concerns, noting that their store encountered delays in chicken deliveries, and in some days, forced to close their doors due to the lack of stocks.
The vendor said chicken prices began to go up in December 2024 and supplies were limited.
ICY’s typically sells around 50 kilos of chicken a day in five outlets across Cebu City.
However, he said since November 2024, the supply has become limited and they cannot secure the 50 kilos in total.
Because of the “shortage” of whole chicken, he said they had to switch to ordering chicken parts which are more expensive.
No shortage
Sought for comment by SunStar Cebu, the Department of Agriculture (DA) 7 assured consumers that Central Visayas will continue to have a sufficient supply of chicken.
Data released by the DA 7 on Tuesday, Jan. 14, showed the region has reached a sufficiency rate of 105 percent for the year 2024, supported by abundant production from Bohol and Negros Oriental, which help supply Cebu Province.
Cebu itself has a sufficiency rate of 96 percent, with 11,862 metric tons of chicken supplied to the region from neighboring provinces.
In total, Central Visayas produced 105,474 metric tons of dressed chicken in 2024, with Cebu contributing the largest share at 63,378 metric tons.
“The slight increase in the price of poultry during the holiday season is due to high demand and high production costs, such as the cost of feeds and the supply of day-old chicks coming from Mindanao which is regulated by quarantine measures in place to curb the spread of Avian Influenza illness,” the DA7 said in a letter sent to SunStar Cebu along with the data.
Cebu City has remained free from the highly pathogenic H5N2 bird flu strain.
Alice Utlang, head of the Cebu City Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries also reported that chicken supplies in Cebu City, sourced locally and from imported products, are unaffected by bird flu.
Current prices in Carbon Public Market are as follows: Whole chicken (P195 to P200/kilo), chicken cut-ups (P220 to P230/kilo), chicken fillet (P290 to P300/kilo), chicken head (P30 to P35/kilo), chicken neck (P120 to P130/kilo), chicken feet (P90 to P110/kilo), gizzards and liver (P150 to P170/kilo),
intestines (P90 and P110/kilo), while chicken backbones are available for P140 to P150 per kilogram. / CDF