DILIMAN, Quezon City—Duck-raising has been a good source of income for Jesus Unabia, Jr., Magsasaka Siyentista and farm manager of the Golden Egg Duck Farm in Victoria, Laguna.
One of the reasons for this, according to him, is because ducks have strong immunity against diseases and the demand for duck eggs is high.
“We started in 1986… Income from duck farming is good especially here in Victoria, Laguna which is considered as the Duck Raising Capital of the Philippines,” Unabia said in a radio interview.
Unabia raises over 1,000 heads of ducks from which he is able to sell fresh duck eggs to “balut” vendors, as well as salted egg. Unabia calls the salted egg he produces as “Golden Egg” because of its yellow color.
“I made use of a different and natural coloring for salted egg [which usually is sold in red]. I made use of turmeric juice that’s why its color is yellow,” he said.
Most of his orders for “Golden Egg” comes from Tagaytay, Naic, and other areas in Cavite. He also has customers from Quezon City and a few towns in Quezon Province.
When starting a duck farming business, Unabia shared that having capital of around Php400,000 would be enough to cover the costs of ducks (“dumalaga”), feeds, and materials for housing. He stressed that space is very important to be able to raise healthy ducks.
Unabia’s radio interview with the Agricultural Training Institute’s “Agri Asenso” program aired last October 8, 2022 in line with the celebration of the Livestock and Poultry Month. The full episode may be streamed on the ATI and the DZRH official Facebook pages.
