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Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. issued Memorandum Order 25, authorizing the temporary import ban on various Brazilian poultry products including domestic birds, meat, day-old chicks, eggs and semen.
STAR / File
Spread of bird flu
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has formally banned the importation of poultry products from Brazil due to the confirmed bird flu cases in the South American country.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. issued Memorandum Order 25, authorizing the temporary import ban on various Brazilian poultry products including domestic birds, meat, day-old chicks, eggs and semen.
The order was issued on May 19 and made public yesterday. The order took effect immediately.
Tiu Laurel issued the import ban to prevent the entry of the bird flu virus in the country and protect the health of the local poultry population.
With the ban in place, the government immediately suspended the processing, evaluation and issuance of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance on Brazilian poultry products.
Nevertheless, poultry shipments from Brazil that are already in transit, loaded and accepted into port before April 28 can still enter the country, according to the order.
Tiu Laurel earlier said that the ban on Brazilian poultry products would not result in supply woes and price spikes in the market as local production is on the rise while importers can easily shift to other foreign suppliers.
The agriculture chief said the banning of poultry products from Brazil would not pose a significant supply issue for the Philippines since there are alternative foreign markets that traders and importers can tap.
Local meat processing industry players echoed Tiu Laurel’s statement, adding that the industry will not suffer a supply gap since companies keep at least a month’s worth of raw material inventory.
The bird flu outbreak in Brazil, which caused the death of almost 7,400 breeders in Rio Grande do Sul, triggered import bans from various countries that have included China, Mexico, Chile and Uruguay. This is the first confirmed bird flu outbreak in a commercial poultry farm in Brazil.
The Philippines usually imposes a temporary import ban on countries with confirmed bird flu outbreaks to protect domestic poultry populations from the animal disease.
Brazil is a critical poultry meat supplier of the country, particularly for the meat processing industry, as it supplies at least 60 percent of its MDM requirement, a vital raw ingredient used to produce food items like hot dogs and meat loaves.
