Philippines meat imports decline 4 percent in August

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s overall meat imports contracted as of end-August, dragged down by the decline in pork shipments.

The country saw a slowdown in its overall meat imports in the first half of the year, driven by the double-digit decline in pork shipments.

Latest data from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) showed the country imported 817.36 million kilos of meat and meat products as of end-August, down 4.05 percent from the 851.84 million kilos in the same period last year.

Pork accounted for nearly half of the total meat shipments at 49.66 percent of the total.

However, pork imports fell 12.68 percent to 405.92 million kilos from 464.84 million kilos a year earlier.

Pork offals – or internal organs – was the most imported pork products at 155.71 million kilos followed by pork cuts at 139.47 million kilos.

Spain continued to dominate pork imports at 101.29 million kilos, followed by Canada at 77.82 million kilos, and Brazil at 63.34 million kilos.

Chicken is the second most imported meat product, cornering 35.42 percent. Its shipments rose 18.27 percent to 289.53 million kilos from 244.8 million kilos last year.

Mechanically deboned chicken meat was the top imported product with 160.3 million kilos, followed by chicken leg quarters with 75.28 million kilos.

The top two sources of chicken meat were Brazil with 166.15 million kilos and the US at 103.07 million kilos.

Meanwhile, figures from BAI also showed beef imports, which accounted for 11.21 percent of the total, slipped by 16.78 percent to 91.65 million kilos from 110.12 million kilos.

Of the beef products, beef cuts accounted for bulk with 56.8 million kilos followed by fats at 16.23 million kilos.

Brazil is the top source of beef shipments with 33.51 million kilos while the country imported 26.94 million kilos from Australia, making it the second top source.

Buffalo imports declined by 6.29 percent to 29.31 million kilos from 31.28 million kilos.

The country also shipped 229,302 kilos of whole and duck meat, a four-fold jump from 48,518 kilos in the same period last year.

Lamb meat shipments reached 563,298 kilos, a 26.57 percent jump from 445,053 kilos last year.

As for turkey, shipments dropped by 44.57 percent to 168,697 kilos from 304,355 kilos last year.