Second quarter chicken situationer in Eastern Visayas

By PSA-8
September 1, 2018

TACLOBAN CITY – The chicken industry in Eastern Visayas posted a 4.6% decrease in production during the second quarter of 2018. Based on the preliminary data, the total chicken production in the region went down to 13,097 metric tons (MT) in the second quarter of 2018 from 13,734 MT in the same quarter last year.

Region VIII accounted for 2.8% of the country’s total chicken production during the second quarter of 2018. It ranked seventh among the regions with low chicken production in the country.

Meanwhile, as of 1 July 2018, the total chicken population in Eastern Visayas stood at 3,291,860 birds. This registered an increase of 2.0 percent from its 3,226,769 inventory as of 1 July 2017.

Among provinces, Leyte recorded the highest number of chicken at 1,813,210 birds, which comprised more than half or 55.1% of the total chicken population in the region. Samar ranked second with 496,335 birds, which accounted for 15.1% of the region’s total chicken inventory. Eastern Samar, meanwhile, registered the lowest inventory of chicken with 2.9% share or 95,913 birds.

By type, layer chickens stood at 428,206 birds as of 1 July 2018. This posted a significant growth of 25.0% from the 342,643 inventory as of 1 July 2017. All provinces registered increases except for Leyte which recorded a decrease of 10.4%, and Eastern Samar which had the same inventory of 5000 birds from 1 July 2017. Northern Samar posted the highest increase at 936.4%, to 72,550 birds as of 1 July 2018 from 7,000 birds as of 1 July 2017.

On the other hand, broiler chickens decreased slightly by 0.8% to 1,207,163 birds as of 1 July 2018 from 1,216,834 birds as of 1 July 2017. Increases registered in Leyte (15.3%) and Southern Leyte (27.6%) were negated by the decreases registered in Biliran (93.0%), Northern Samar (68.2%) and Samar (21.1%). Eastern Samar, meanwhile, retained their inventory at 1,000 birds.

Similarly, the number of native/improved chickens slightly went down by 0.6% with a total inventory of 1,656,491 birds as of 1 July 2018 from 1,667,292 birds as of 1 July 2017. Contributing largely to this decrease are Eastern Samar and Biliran with a double digit drop in inventory of 17.7% and 11.5%, respectively.

A little more than half or 50.3% of the total chicken population in the region were native/improved chickens. Broiler chickens accounted for 36.7%, while the remaining 13.0% were layer chickens.