BIZ BUZZ: More meat for Pinoys

The Philippines will be able to source meat products from four more countries before the year ends, which can help augment domestic supply as the country tends to consume more food during holidays.

An industry source intimated that Sweden, Portugal, India and Russia have secured an accreditation from the government to export meat to the country later this month.

Brazil is currently the country’s top source of meat, followed by the United States and Spain.

Generally, the Philippines relies on importation as local production is insufficient to meet the growing demand for food items.

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The country has increasingly relied on importation over the past years due to the continued prevalence of African swine fever, which has decimated the hog population since the first outbreak in 2019.

The Department of Agriculture deploys personnel to an applicant country to conduct site inspection and validate submissions. It had previously sent such an inspection team to rigorously inspect the documents and facilities of eight countries: Uruguay, India, Argentina, Russia, Denmark, Spain, Sweden and the United States.