DAVAO City has a shortage of chicken supply due to excessive transport of poultry to Metro Manila.
Davao Poultry and Egg Producers Inc. (DPEPI) president lawyer Lalaine Dela Victoria, during the Kapehan sa Dabaw media forum at The Annex of SM City Davao, said the City Agriculturist Office's 2016 statistics revealed that there is a demand for 40 million chicken per year in the city but only 32 million are being produced since last year.
Dela Victoria said that the DPEPI is a Davao City Chamber of Commerce Industry Incorporated accredited association of poultry growers in the city who also venture in local and foreign exportation.
"It is not only the broiler chicken population that decreased but as well as the breeding chickens as the chicks used in chicken raising are from the breeders," she said, adding that the 32 million annual production of chicken in the city is being divided for the consumption in the city and in places where the association exports their products.
Dela Victoria said DPEPI supplies chicken mostly in Metro Manila as there is a greater demand from various companies. Also, she added that the population increase in the city has also affected the chicken supply.
Dela Victoria added that 100 day-old chicks in poultry farms in the city have also dropped to 65 percent from last year, thus, making it difficult for farms to meet the demand.
"Even with the current shortage of chicken supply, we cannot stop the exportation just to sustain the supply for the city because it is business," Dela Victoria said.
DPEPI is working on the establishment of more poultry farms and the expansion of existing farms to meet the need for more supply.
Dela Victoria, however, said most of the poultry growers have issues on the zoning of the poultry farms as the city required them to put their farms on agricultural land listed on the city's zoning ordinance.
There are already 60 big and small chicken growers registered with DPEPI. The big-scaled growers house 300,000 while the small-scaled growers have 10,000 chickens annually.