The Department of Agriculture (DA) confirmed Saturday that it will allow inter-island movement from mainland Luzon of day-old chicks, hatching eggs, and ready-to-lay pullets to help arrest the increasing price of poultry due to higher demand for chicken and low poultry production.,DA-attached Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) OIC-Director Reildrin Morales said the move was part of the lined-up interventions that include increasing production and stabilizing supply and market price.,For day-old chicks and hatching eggs, movement is allowed provided they tested negative for AI 28 days from the date of sample collection.,Meanwhile, for ready-to-play pullets, movement is allowed provided they tested negative for AI 14 days from the date of sample collection.,“The uneven demand-supply situation may also be attributed to the restrictions in movement of live birds, poultry products and by-products due to Avian Influenza (AI) cases in some areas,” Morales said.,BAI said it is also working h closely with partners from the private sector in regularly validating the broiler life cycle model.,The agency has already issued special import permits for needed vaccines to support disease prevention of other poultry diseases such as Infectious Body Hepatitis (IBH).,To address the high cost of Agri inputs, Morales added that DA executives will be conducting dialogues with other countries on possible alternative sources of cheaper feed ingredients.,To recall, the DA has already lifted the temporary ban for poultry products coming from Spain, Denmark, Czech Republic.,According to Morales, the increase in demand was caused by the opening of markets, including hotels and restaurants, now that pandemic restrictions are more relaxed.,Moreover, with the economy slowly opening up and creating job opportunities, more consumers have the purchasing power to buy meat for their families.,Early this week, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced that his administration’s priority is the increase production of the country’s major staples, including corn, which is consumed as food and animal feed.,“Corn especially became very important because the feed-wheat that we were importing, na-cut off ang supply nation, so we have to substitute it with corn,” Marcos said.,“This season, the corn growers were able to come together and provide sufficient feed for the broiler production,” he added., ,