Manok PiNoy’s Window of Opportunity WORLD-WIDE CRAZE AND CRAVING FOR FREE-RANGED NATURAL CHICKEN

By Manny Pinol

As the world gets a full grasp of the ill-effects of chemicals and synthetic food additives to the human body, there is an unstoppable and insatiable demand now for naturally grown food and healthy meat.

Two weeks ago, when I was in the US, my friend Dennis Maniwang of Salinas, California told me that organic free-ranged dressed chicken sells for $10 each in markets along Tully Road in San Jose City.

Last night, Brother No. 10, Nilo, who is now a British citizen and lives with his wife and children in an area near London, sent me pictures of beautifully-packaged dressed chicken sold in the supermarkets in England.

One pack declares that it contains “Organic” slow-growing chicken, another declares that it contains “corn-fed” chicken grown in South Angola while the third declares that it contains “slow-growing” chicken raised in the free range.

And the price? Almost 7 British Pounds, roughly P500 each.

My brother Nilo said he buys this type of chicken for his family because he knows it is healthy and safe.

But to think that some of the naturally-grown free-ranged chicken come from as far as South Angola emphasizes the premium people are willing to pay just to make sure that they are eating safe food.

In the Philippines, or at least in several areas in and around Davao City where I live, almost every operator of restaurants offering free-ranged and naturally grown chicken, conveniently called “native” chicken by Filipinos, are complaining of the lack of supply.

This has been going on for years now.

In fact, this reality was one of the driving force in my deep personal involvement with the development of the “Manok PiNoy,” a name which I coined to refer to a new strain or family of Philippine backyard chicken which is an improvement of the so-called “native” mongrel chicken.

“Manok PiNoy” was one of the development programs I mentioned during the last political campaign where I envisioned the Province of North Cotabato to be the main producer of free-ranged naturally-grown backyard chicken.

I dreamed of allowing farming families in the province to raise “Manok PiNoy” chicks produced by a provincial-government-owned breeding facility which in turn will be bought back, dressed in a facility near the M’lang airport and shipped to the major markets using small cargo planes which would land in the airport now undergoing construction.

But things did not turn out the wayI and people who believed in me expected.

My political loss, however, turned out to be a personal gain.

Now, “Manok PiNoy” serves as the flagship project of the Braveheart Farm which I, my children, my brothers and my workers own.

Given the world-wide trend for naturally-grown and free-ranged chicken, I believe that the “Manok PiNoy” is in the right place at the right time.

Which reminds me of that statement of faith which I like very much: “When God closes doors, He opens windows.”