Thailand
Philippines: Meat imports up 46% from January to February
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines imported 46 percent more meat in the first two months of the year, mainly driven by pork imports, according to the Bureau of Animal Industry.
The BAI reported that meat import arrivals from January to February reached 162.1 million kilos, higher than last year’s 111.3 million kilos.
The country imported 85.8 million kilos of meat and 76.3 million kilos of meat in January and February, respectively.
Pork accounted for half of the importation volume, with 81.3 million kilos. This is a 49 percent increase from the 54.6 million kilos imported in the first two months of 2021.
The bulk of the pork imports were offals and pork cuts, registering a total of 31.8 million kilos and 29.9 million kilos, respectively.
Last year, President Duterte signed executive order 134, which provides that in-quota pork imports or those under the minimum access volume (MAV) are imposed a 10- percent tariff for three months and increased to 15- percent in the remaining months. This is lower than the original rate of 30 percent.
Out quota pork imports are slapped with a 20-percent tariff for the first three months, which will be raised to 25 percent in the remaining months. This is lower than the original tariff of 40 percent.
As the measure is set to lapse in May, the country’s economic team is proposing the extension of the lower tariffs, as well as the additional MAV of 200,000 metric tons to be extended until December 2022 to expand supply and reduce pork prices.
This is part of the economic team’s proposed measures to cushion the impact of soaring global oil prices on domestic food prices.
Meanwhile, the BAI reported that the volume of chicken imports in the first two months also registered a significant increase at 69 percent to 52.6 million kilos from 31 million kilos in the same period last year.
Deboned chicken accounted for more than half of the chicken imports, with a total of 35.46 million kilos.
Moreover, beef imports also registered a 23- percent increase to 24.2 million kilos from 19.57 million kilos in the first two months of last year.
BAI data also showed that the country imported 3.86 million kilos of buffalo, 143,142 kilos of turkey, and 14,978 kilos of lamb in the first two months.
Brazil was the country’s top source of meat imports, accounting for 45.8 million kilos of total meat imports. Brazil was the country’s top supplier of imported chicken, with shipments reaching 24.9 million kilos in the first two months, while it was also the third largest source of pork imports at 9.79 million kilos.
Spain was the country’s largest source of pork imports with shipments of 31.27 million kilos during the review period.
Source: https://www.philstar.com/business/2022/03/15/2167259/meat-imports-46-january-february