Chicken prices rise
as production decreases

SOUTHERN LEYTE – There was a drastic drop of -43.05% in the chicken population of Southern Leyte, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority Eastern Visayas report for the first quarter of 2022.
Consumers of Maasin City are now alarmed by the rising price of chicken. A single parent and a senior citizen commented, “We have no choice but to buy, because the price of chicken is still lesser than that of pork.” As of this writing the cost of a whole chicken price in Maasin City wet market is up to P240 – 250.
Meanwhile, poultry raiser Pinili Lao said that there are only few poultry farms here, only few are raising chicken. That’s why the prices go high, she said. Pinili is advocating for the government to help the poultry raisers also, like a recovery program especially after COVID and typhoon Odette.
The recent data of the Philippine Statistics Authority Eastern Visayas showed that chicken production went down by -10.59 percent, which recorded at 13,042 metric tons in the first quarter of 2022, compared to the first quarter of 2021 which was 14,587 metric tons.
The decline of chicken population was due to the substantial declines of three provinces, namely, Southern Leyte with -43.05%, Leyte with -12.71% and Biliran with -12.47%.
In terms of chicken type, layer chicken registered the highest decline in inventory by -15.01 percent with 523.0 thousand of birds as of January 1, 2022, compared with the 615.4 thousand birds as of January 1, 2021. All provinces registered decreases in layer chicken population except Eastern Samar which increased threefold with 222.86% from 2.9 thousand birds in the first quarter of 2021 to 9.4 thousand birds in the same quarter of 2022.
A drastic drop was also recorded in Southern Leyte, Samar, and Leyte in layer chicken production.
In broiler chicken production, Southern Leyte and Eastern Samar contributed to the downtrend in the region’s total broiler population. Southern Leyte broiler chicken inventory fell by -58.73 percent from 202.6 thousand birds in the first quarter of 2021 to 83.6 thousand birds in the same quarter of 2022.
Native/improved chicken also noted a decline in inventory. In the first quarter of the year 2022 in Eastern Visayas, the average farmgate price of native/improved chicken was recorded at P220.09 per kilogram, live-weight, which registered an increase of 41.9 percent compared with the average farmgate price of P155.14 per kilogram in the first quarter of 2021.