‘MANOK PiNOY’ BREED AND BRAND NOW AN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

By Manny Pinol

www.mannypinol.net

Four years after I started a breeding experiment aimed at developing a new Philippine backyard poultry strain which would be grown and raised naturally in the free range, Manok PiNoy, the name which I gave this new breed, is now listed by the Intellectual Property Office.

The submission of the “Manok PiNoy” brand name and breed to the IPO is part of the preparation for the commercial production of this new breed of meat and egg chicken which I believe will radically revolutionize the Philippine backyard chicken industry.

The breeding experiment which produced “Manok PiNoy” was actually prompted by my personal preference for the naturally grown and free range native chicken over the 27-day-old broiler.

Pardon me for sounding very suspicious but I believe that you could not possibly develop a mass of flesh over one kilo in weight in a table chicken in a natural way in less than one month unless growth hormones are used.

Which is why I have always discouraged my children from eating broiler chicken, except when they are on their own perhaps in fastfood joints.

I have heard of efforts to develop a local backyard poultry breed, including the Darag which I was told was bred in Panay Island.

But aside from that, there has been no serious effort to really develop a backyard poultry strain using indigenous and old backyard poultry breeds.

Local native chicken raisers have been confronted by problems on how to mass produce the local breeds given the fact that most of these lines are actually mongrels with no distinct and common characteristics.

The lack of supply of free range and naturally grown chicken in the market has actually resulted in the great disparity in the prices of broiler and the native chicken.

While dressed broiler chicken is sold for an average of P130 per kilo, native chicken is priced at least P180 per kilo, or a difference of P50.

Native chicken restaurants and barbecue outlets have always complained of lack of steady supply  to ensure that their businesses would be sustained.

One native chicken house in Davao City, for example, wanted to put up more branches but is prevented by the lack of supply of free range and natural grown chicken.

With the development of “Manok PiNoy,” I hope to be able to assure these outlets with a steady weekly supply of free-range and naturally grown chicken which is an improvement of the native breed because they carry more meat  and are grown to over one kilo in 90 days.

They also produce distinctive brown eggs preferred by health buffs.

Coming in black and red plumage, the “Manok PiNoy” is expected to be commercially produced by the Summer of 2014 with an initial monthly production of about 10,000 heads.

This early, a native chicken house in Davao City has already made a reservation for a monthly supply of 2,000 heads while an owner of a chain of supermarkets with branches all over Visayas and Mindanao has asked that he be allowed to carry “Manok PiNoy” in his stores.

The future looks exciting for “Manok PiNoy,” a backyard chicken breed which was developed simply because of a preference for the taste of free-range and naturally grown poultry.

This is what the wise men have been saying: Necessity is the Mother of Invention.