by Ronald Mascariñas, BAVI President
So much comes with every chicken we roast, but at the very heart of it all is our people.
From the growers and vets in our broiler farms and hatcheries to the coconut and corn planters supplying our feed mills, from the truckers and dressers to our roasters and sales personnel in close to 1,700 stalls all over the country—the Chooks family is a 15,000-strong, highly integrated ecosystem.
Orchestrating this complex ensemble of people, skills and tasks to ensure production symphony requires skills of a consummate conductor. At Chooks, these are our partners, managers, technical personnel and administrative support staff who we are very fortunate to have. They have withstood the tough tests of time, in many a crisis past.
Today, our tight-knit ecosystem is buffeted by strong headwinds brought about by the global corona virus pandemic. As with many, it is proving to be the worst turbulence we all have to come to grips with.
But we must weather this storm for the sake of our livelihoods. Our families, our community and our nation relies upon it.
As we batten the hatches to ensure the safety of our people, my heart is gladdened to the core by the sight of our long-time friends, loyal and valued co-workers doggedly manning the trenches.
I see them in our farms and in our factories, in our mills and in our stalls and offices, even in our homes—working, watching and listening for every strange sight, every out-of-place sound that warns of risks to the engines of our industry.
They are the unseen and unsung heroes of our business upon whom our valued customers and clients have come to rely upon for the continued availability of our services, especially in time of crisis, when they need us the most.
To give you a clearer picture, our Vet in Isabela has to go through nine checkpoints to get to one farm. Our feed delivery personnel has to make do with only one helper to unload a truckload of feeds in the farm as checkpoints allow only one helper per truck. We have to secure individual permits and arrange for transportation for the thousands of processing plants and store personnel all over the country.
Please don’t mistake this for complaints. We recognise that these steps are necessary, and we are fully cooperating with the ECQ protocol to contain the plague.
Just want to recognise the hardworking people and their tremendous effort behind every roasted chicken you buy from our cheerful store crew. And we are all happy to go through this every single day to serve you.
And that is how we roast chicken.