The country’s meat imports rose to its highest in 2016 at 646,503.7 metric tons (MT), 10.28 percent higher than 586,263.900 MT imported in 2015, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI).
Data obtained by the BusinessMirror from the BAI also showed that meat imports have been steadily growing: 390,519.15 MT in 2010; 408,741.67 MT in 2011; 411,351.07 MT in 2012; 461,343.01 MT in 2013; and 559,887.34 MT in 2014.
The Meat Importers and Traders Association (Mita) attributed this to the continuous expansion in the country’s economy, resulting in an increase in the purchasing power of Filipinos.
“The economy is improving so the increased consumption could be a reflection of this,” Mita President Jesus C. Cham told the BusinessMirror in an interview.
Data from the BAI, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA), showed that the US and Germany were the two sources of imported meat last year.
The US accounted for 20.33 percent of all the meat imports. Purchases from the US reached 131,443.88 MT, 13.28 percent higher than the 116,035.89 MT recorded in 2015.
Meat imports from Germany also rose by 22.3 percent to 92,436.274 MT, from 75,583.428 MT posted in 2015.
Pork accounted for 42.65 percent of the total meat imports in 2016. The country bought 275,759.02 MT of pork last year, 9.05 percent higher than the 252,864.01 MT imported in 2015.
Data from the BAI showed that the country’s chicken imports expanded by 18.44 percent last year. Purchases reached 234,742.76 MT, higher than the 2015 record of 198,193.29 MT.Purchases of other meat products from abroad also recorded increases last year, the BAI said. On an annual basis, beef imports went up by 8.61 percent to 93,721.925 MT, while lamb meat imports surged by 31.21 percent to 741.184 MT. Cham attributed the rise in beef and lamb-meat imports to the increasing popularity of affordable buffet restaurants in the country, as well as the growth in the demand of local processors for raw materials, such as offal.
“The increase in mechanically deboned meat and pork offal seem to indicate that,” he said.
BAI data showed that imported chicken MDM last year amounted to 168,686.86 MT, 7.07 percent higher than the 157,546.08 MT purchased in 2015. Pork offal imports also rose by 8.52 percent to 118,125.18 MT, from 108,855.58 MT in 2015.
MDM accounted for 71.86 percent of the total chicken meat imported in 2016, while offal accounted for 42.84 percent of the total pork imports.
The volume of imported chicken MDM alone was bigger than the combined beef meat, lamb meat, buffalo meat, duck meat and turkey meat purchased from abroad.
Data from the BAI showed that buffalo-meat imports reached 38,833.9 MT, 12.51 percent lower than the 44,388.54 MT recorded in 2015.
Also, purchases of imported duck meat declined by 30.36 percent to 223.884 MT last year, from the 2015 record of 321.510 MT, while turkey-meat imports went down by 38.2 percent to 2,481.06 MT, from 4,014.79 MT in 2015.
Local traders are allowed by the government to import meat products under the minimum access volume (MAV) scheme of the World Trade Organization. This year the MAV allocations for pork meat and poultry are at 54,210 MT and 23,490 MT, respectively, according to the government data obtained by the BusinessMirror.
The government granted licenses to 114 private firms to import 54,210 MT of frozen pork. These include Century Pacific Food Inc., Foodsphere Inc., Mekeni Food Corp., Pampanga’s Best Inc., Mayon Consolidated Inc. and Jollibee Foods Corp.
Pork imported within the MAV are slapped a 30-percent tariff, while those outside of MAV are levied a 40-percent tariff.
As for frozen-poultry meat, 124 firms were allowed bring it in under MAV. These include Delichicken Corp., Virginia Foods Inc., The Purefoods-Hormel Co. Inc., Puregold Price Club Inc. and Rustans Supercenters Inc. The government imposes a 40-percent tariff on poultry-meat imports.
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Importation of this meat should be ban to help local farmers