Poultry firm gets BOI tax perks

A company that rears chicken for meat processing or final consumption will get tax breaks for a project that plans to raise 2.3 million birds in a year, the Board of Investments (BOI) said.

The BOI said in a recent statement that it had approved the application of Agro Azienda Inc., a new producer of broiler chicken in Maragondon, Cavite province. Its project, which will start operations in May 2022, costs P195.5 million.

“Serving as an essential support to [the] meat processing industry, the project is a commercial production of broiler chicken on a contract-growing scheme with a big local company,” the BOI said, without specifying the name of the big local firm.

Broiler farming is the process wherein broiler chickens are reared and prepared for either meat processing or final consumption.

The BOI said proper nutrition to birds and utilization of modern technology, coupled with good farming practice, are crucial to improving meat quality and increasing farm productivity.

Poultry meat is considered one of the basic commodities of Filipinos, making it the second most consumed meat type after pork, the BOI said, citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The BOI said Filipinos relied on pork, chicken and eggs to support around 34.28 grams of protein per day, whereas the recommended protein intake for Filipinos is about 49 to 67 g per day.

With increasing per capita income, demand for meat such as chicken has seen a significant spike at least in the previous decade. The BOI, citing PSA data, said the Philippine chicken production in 2020 was at 1.8 million metric tons. The industry grew by 2 percent on average from 2016 to 2020.

For 2022, the estimated chicken production is 1.9 million MT.