Agri officials draw up ostrich meat standards

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Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer
Date Published: 07/13/04
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BAGUIO CITY-Agriculture officials have drawn up new standards for the burgeoning 
ostrich meat market, following an appeal made by Baguio-based ostrich herders. 
 
The National Meat Inspection Commission (NMIC) advised the Philippine Import-
Export Ostrich Foundation that draft guidelines for the franchising of ostrich abattoirs 
were being reviewed by the agriculture department.
Minda Manantan, NMIC deputy executive director, said she had sent two government 
experts to Australia to "observe the slaughtering process of ostrich because the 
procedures and equipment needed for dressing ostrich are different from dressing 
poultry and other avian species." 
 
Peter Chumawin, one of the foundation's founders, petitioned the Department of 
Agriculture to rationalize and provide regulations for the ostrich meat trade, after 
noting that local retail "may be the wave of the Philippine ostrich industry's future." 
 
The trade in the Philipipnes began as outreach export farms that investors set up in 
Mindanao and Nueva Ecija to supply foreign markets. 
 
Chumawin said they formed the foundation initially to capitalize on the export 
market. But its members, who all hail from the Cordillera, realized its domestic 
potential, he said. 
 
Ostrich meat tastes like beef and has less calories than most cattle byproducts, he 
said. 
 
Chumawin said ostrich meat can be a beef alternative, particularly for communities 
in the Cordillera. Upland villages have a meat-heavy diet that requires a supply that 
must sometimes be imported from the lowlands because the mountain terrain is too 
conducive for cattle ranching. 
 
Ostrich farms require only a few hundred square meters. 
 
Chumawin petitioned the DA, pointing out ostrich meat's competitive value. 
 
Manatan responded when the Inquirer aired his appeal. "While it is true that ostrich 
meat is not covered by government regulations, please be assured that government 
has not been remiss of its duty to safeguard the health of meat consuming public 
from risks related to emerging exotic food," she wrote Chumawin. 
 
Chumawin said the foundation is documenting the progress of its farms and is 
scientifically tracking each ostrich chick's progress. "So far, not a single chick has 
caught any locally derived diseases," he said. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern 
Luzon Bureau