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Philippines: Meat imports in 9 months rise to 1 billion kilos
MANILA, Philippines — The country’s meat imports breached the one billion-kilo mark as of the end of September, still driven by pork and chicken shipments.
Latest data from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) showed the country imported 1.01 billion kilos of meat and meat products from January to September, up 11.9 percent from the 902.3 million kilos shipped in the same period last year.
Pork imports accounted for more than half of the total meat, or 54 percent at 554.7 million kilos, 78.5 percent higher than the previous year.
This is way past the estimates of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which projected pork imports to reach 550,000 metric tons (MT) or 550 million kilos this year, driven by the extended reduced tariffs on pork imports under executive order (EO) 171.
Under EO 171, the 15 percent in-quota and 25 percent out quota tariff rates for pork will be extended until Dec. 31 to bring down prices and stabilize the supply of pork in the country.
Pork cuts accounted for highest imports with 243.87 million kilos while offals – or internal organs – were next at 164.82 million kilos.
The top sources of pork are Spain at 178.67 million kilos, Canada 101.53 million kilos, and Brazil 58.97 million kilos.
Chicken was the second major imported meat for the period, accounting for 29.1 percent of the total.
Data from the BAI showed chicken imports reached 293.86 million kilos, down 2.6 percent from 301.65 million kilos shipped in the same period last year.
For this year, the USDA has forecasted chicken imports to reach 435,000 MT or 435 million kilos.
Deboned chicken meat was the top imported product at 177.11 million kilos, followed by chicken leg quarters at 74.36 million kilos.
The top three sources of chicken meat were Brazil at 135.8 million kilos, US 73.3 million kilos and Canada 10.22 million kilos.
Figures from the BAI also showed beef imports accounted for 13.3 percent of the total.
The volume of beef shipped increased by 7.9 percent to 134.69 million kilos.
Source: https://www.philstar.com/business/2022/10/16/2216935/meat-imports-9-months-rise-1-billion-kilos