Jollibee, McDo face chicken supply crunch

A chicken supply crunch is affecting the country’s biggest fast food chains Jollibee Foods Corp. and McDonald’s.

In a statement, the Jollibee Group said yesterday that “due to continued increase in consumer demand and limited chicken supply in the market that meets our high quality standards, a small number of stores of Jollibee and Mang Inasal are unable to serve some chicken orders.”

“We are confident that these select branches will be able to fully serve their customers’ chicken orders soon,” JFC also said.

The listed Asian food conglomerate did not specify how many branches and which particular orders were affected.

Mang Inasal is one of the brands under the Jollibee Group while for the Jollibee chain itself, its popular chicken dish is Chickenjoy, which comes in different servings.

Jollibee’s main competitor in the Philippines, McDonald’s, is also unable to serve chicken because of a surge in demand, according to Bloomberg.

At present, McDonald’s said current supplies don’t meet standards.

The fast food chain said there are some stores that temporarily don’t sell chicken.

Some customers of McDonald’s said the only available chicken dish in some stores is McNuggets, bitesize boneless chicken meat wrapped in batter and deep fried.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), total chicken inventory was estimated at 187.66 million birds as of March 31, 2022 or 2.4 percent higher than the year-ago inventory. Inventory of broiler chicken and layer chicken grew by 10.7 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.

On the other hand, inventory of native chicken declined by 2.3 percent. Native chicken accounted for 43 percent of the total chicken population during the period, the PSA said in its latest available report on the chicken industry.

Last month, the United Broiler Raisers’ Association said rising cost of feeds and poor weather have made it difficult to raise poultry.

The prevailing price of whole chicken in Metro Manila markets has risen to around P200 a kilo as of last month or P25 higher than the P175 per kilo prevailing price registered in May.