Philippines may experience chicken shortage due to bird flu outbreak in Brazil

The Philippines will probably ban chicken imports from Brazil due to a recent bird flu outbreak in the South American country. The move was hinted at by Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr during a press briefing. According to Tiu Laurel, the Philippines and Brazil do not have a regionalization agreement, so the ban will cover all Brazilian imports, regardless of their geographical origin. It will be hard for Filipino consumers as Brazilian chicken products are extremely cheap. As admitted by Tiu Laurel, sourcing from other suppliers would be difficult and expensive, leading to a potential chicken shortage in the country. However, he said that the Filipino poultry industry has good production levels, so it does not see significant problems arising from the ban.