Meat imports up 7.2% at end-July

The Philippines brought in more meat imports as of July, mainly driven by pork and chicken shipments.

Around 734.9 million kilograms of meat entered the country from January to July this year, up by 7.2 percent from the 685.7 million kg recorded a year prior, data from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) showed.

With an uptrend in the last four months, pork remained the main driver of meat imports.

Increasing shipments

Pork shipments, mostly pork cuts and offals, climbed by 19.4 percent to 397.9 million kg, representing more than half of the total volume.

The majority of pork was sourced from Spain, followed by Canada and Brazil.

The United States Department of Agriculture previously raised its pork import forecast to 400,000 metric tons from 375,000 MT previously as the government retained lower tariffs for imported pork until end-December.

EO No. 171

Executive Order (EO) No. 171 was issued by former President Rodrigo Duterte to lower food prices and stabilize the supply of basic commodities amid supply constraints aggravated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

It extended the most favored nation tariff rates for pork imports at 15 percent for in-quota volume and 25 percent for out-quota volume until Dec. 31.

The USDA report noted the minimum access volume for pork was retained at 54,210 MT.

In Metro Manila, pork ham (kasim) was being sold for P300 per kg as of Friday, lower than P320 per kg a year ago, based on the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) price monitoring. Pork liempo retailed for P360 per kg from P360 per kg.

Chicken imports were a close second at 212.4 million kg, down by 3.8 percent, with deboned chicken accounting for about two-thirds of the total.

Brazil was still the primary source of imported chicken, while the United States and Canada came next.

The prevailing price of whole chicken in the metro stood at P180 per kg, higher than P150 per kg last year, according to the DA.

The volume of imported beef, mainly beef cuts, dropped by 2.2 percent to 96.1 million kg. The shipments were mostly from Brazil. INQ