Kallen Pullet Farm has secured a PHP46.2m ($959,103) loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) to support its poultry business in Guinayangan, Quezon province.

The loan has been provided under the bank’s Broiler Contract Growing Program (BCGP).

BCGP is DBP’s sustainable agribusiness financing programme, which aims to support broiler contract growers.

The loan will be used by the company to construct two tunnel-ventilated buildings and purchase poultry equipment and generator sets.

DBP president and CEO Emmanuel G Herbosa said: “DBP’s intensified support to micro-level, small-scale and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs) reflect the bank’s unwavering commitment to empower small entrepreneurs and to help bolster the country’s economic recovery from the pandemic.”

Through credit and technical assistance programmes, the bank aims to support MSMEs that have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Herbosa added: “DBP’s continued enhancement of its existing financing programmes while pursuing more responsive interventions will ensure that MSMEs would continue to significantly impact on more Filipinos.”

In August, the Government of the Philippines issued a memorandum order placing a temporary ban on chicken imports from Brazil due to Covid-19. Agriculture Secretary William Dar signed the memorandum order.

Philippines Department of Agriculture (DA) had then noted that the move, which was made as a precautionary measure, was in line with the country’s Food Safety Act of 2013.

The order came after several news reports emerged that SARS-COV-2 was detected on chicken wings imported from Brazil.