Seeing an unmet demand for more chicken, Philippines-based San Miguel Foods is expanding its poultry segment.
During a recent annual meeting, San Miguel Corp. President and CEO Ramon Ang told shareholders that is expansion plans include the construction of multiple plants, reported Business Inquirer.
“We plan to build several mega poultry plants in strategic locations nationwide over the next 10 years. This will bring down logistical costs, making food products more affordable for consumers,” Ang said. “Our expansion efforts in the poultry segment will help safeguard against supply shortages and provide more stable pricing. With modern processes and technologies, we can also ensure higher levels of safety and quality, and better animal health and protection.”
In its recently released 2022 annual report, the company announced that its protein business, which comprises of poultry and fresh meats increased revenues by 4% to PHP67.9 billion (US$1.22 billion).
It was able to achieve that in spite of industry-wide capacity shortages, particularly in the second quarter of 2022 that constrained poultry volume growth, the company stated.
“This shortage was primarily caused by pandemic-induced financial difficulties that discouraged the construction of new contract grower farms,” the annual report read. “But while the tightness persisted, the demand for chicken grew, specifically with the foodservice industry benefitting from the reopening of the economy. This prompted prices to rise in an effort to balance supply and demand.”
Because of that limited supply, San Miguel Foods channeled its volumes to institutional customers and the Magnolia Chicken Timplados marinated chicken brand, which the company said, “continued to earn positive market acceptance.”
San Miguel Foods, according to the WATTPoultry International Top Poultry Companies survey, is the largest poultry producer in the Philippines, the tenth largest in Asia, and the 25th largest in the world. During the past year, it slaughtered 350 million broilers.
