As South Korea reels from the devastating effect of a new Bird Flu outbreak, the Philippine Dept. of Agriculture has taken steps to support our Asian neighbour and ally by offering to supply its eggs, ducks and poultry requirements.
On Jan. 16, a team from the Bureau of Animal Industry led by Asst. Secretary Enrico Garzon will leave for South Korea to formally ask the South Korean government to give the Philippines market access for hatching and table eggs for both chicken and ducks.
It was the DA's agriculture analyst Maria Alilia Maghirang assigned in South Korea who sent me a memorandum earlier last week informing me of the immediate requirements for chicken and duck eggs in that country.
She said that one of the DA's contacts in South Korea alone needs 1.5-million eggs daily for industrial use and 300,000 chicken hatching eggs and 500,000 duck eggs every week.
"The South Korean government recently announced the lifting of tariffs on eggs and egg products temporarily starting 3 January 2017 due to the supply shortage of eggs and skyrocketing prices of eggs brought about by the mass culling of about 30 million chicken due to the spread of the H5N6 and H5N8 strains of the avian influenza virus in the country," Maghirang said in her report to the DA Secretary.
Quoting the Korea Times newspaper, Maghirang reported that the South Korean government has decided to facilitate the import process for eggs and egg products and subsidise the freight cost for these products from overseas.
The demand for eggs, dressed chicken and ducks is expected to increase further as the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration nears.
Aside from our genuine concern to help a long-time ally in this time of crisis, I am also looking at this development as a rare opportunity for the country to start exporting not only eggs but also dressed chicken and ducks to South Korea.
I intend to conduct further negotiations with the Ministry of Agriculture of South Korea and convince its officials to look at the Philippines as a steady and reliable partner which could supply their country with eggs, chicken and ducks in view of the recurrent outbreak of Bird Flu.
This could be the break that our poultry and duck farmers have been waiting for.
