The Department of Agriculture (DA) has officially released the order for a temporary ban on the importation of domestic and wild birds, as well as poultry products from Brazil due to bird flu outbreaks in parts of the South American country.
The DA issued the official order after Brazil notified the World Organization for Ani-mal Health of the local outbreaks of H5N1 high pathogenicity avian influenza in Mon-tenegro, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
This was the reason cited by the DA in a memorandum order signed by Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. dated May 19, 2025, but was only made public on Thursday, May 22.
This was the reason cited by the DA in a memorandum order signed by Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. dated May 19, 2025, but was only made public on Thursday, May 22.
Memorandum order No. 25, series of 2025, also suspended the issuance of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Import Clearances by the Bureau of Animal Industry for poultry products from Brazil, including poultry meat, day-old chicks, eggs and semen.
“All shipments coming from Brazil that are in transit/load/accepted unto port before the official communication of this order to the Brazilian authorities shall be allowed provided that the products were slaughtered/produced on or before April 28, 2025,” Tiu Laurel said in the document.
Shipments not meeting these conditions will either be sent back to Brazil, shipped to a third country, or seized and destroyed, the memorandum SAID.
Veterinary quarantine officers have been ordered to confiscate all non-compliant shipments, except for heat-treated products.
Prior to this official announcement, the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) urged the DA to also look into the disparity of farmgate and retail prices of chicken, especially with the poultry importation ban from Brazil.
Jayson Cainglet, SINAG executive director, said that based on their monitoring, farm-gate prices have stayed low at P90 to P120 per kg but retail prices in markets have been pegged at P200 to P250 per kg.
He said retail prices should ideally only be P180 to P185 per kg, allowing a P50-to-P65 markup to cover distribution, logistics, and retail handling costs.
“There is yet no evidence of a supply shortage following the Brazil import ban. What we are seeing is a distorted pricing structure where consumers do not benefit from the lower farmgate prices,” Cainglet said.
Based on data from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), the country purchased a to-tal of 472,211,452 kg of imported chicken in 2024. Of that volume, 237,395,370 kg or 50.3 percent came from Brazil.
The DA’s monitoring of public markets as of Wednesday showed the prevailing retail prices of whole dressed chicken ranged between P160 and P240 per kg.
