TACLOBAN CITY – The market-consumer climate here in Tacloban remains to have great potential reason why he decided to open a branch of its chicken meat shop. Thus said Eric Codilla, former mayor of Ormoc City who owns the AOG Chicken, a local chicken meat shop which offers organic chicken. Codilla opened its AOG Chicken outlet in Tacloban last October 29. Tacloban experienced its worst tragedy when supertyphoon Yolanda struck the city close to a year now. But Codilla said that his decision to open a branch in Tacloban hinged on the fast recovery of the city from Yolanda’s wrath. “We in Ormoc experienced the same when we were devastated by the flash floods in 1991. But our businessmen stood by the city and maintained their businesses which helped our commercial center rise back up again,” Codilla said.
The said massive flash flood incident killed over 3,000 people in Ormoc, one of the country’s worst tragedies. The newly opened AOG Chicken along Real Street corner Sampaguita is one of two or three branches that the Codilla-owned company plans to open in Tacloban. “We really see a good market here in Tacloban considering that this is a regional center and caters to many towns in Leyte and Samar,” Codilla added.
Dressed chicken and other chicken products offered by AOG Chicken are free from chemicals, thus their products are healthier and tastier without the harmful effects of electrolytes. The secret is in the naturally farmed process in raising the chickens.
In place of chemicals, they concoct their own organic solution which they learned from seminars of the Department of Agriculture and the Visayas State University. The special mix consists of rice, milk, garlic and ginger to boost the chicken’s immune system. The company produces around 4,000 chicken heads daily, which they sell in their family-owned meat shop in Ormoc and other retailers in Naval, Biliran, Baybay City, Palompon and Isabel. AOG Chicken initially offered their dressed chicken at P105 per kilo and P170 for “lechon manok”. However, they have a special buy 1 take 1 offer of P240 for their lechon manok.
Poultry is not the first business he has ventured into, according to Codilla. He started his piggery business in 2007 but decided to have a poultry farm after seeing that there is a need for a supplier of organic chicken in the region. Local supplies in Eastern Visayas are being sourced from Cebu. (AHLETTE C. REYES)
