Hog fever, strong demand boosted meat imports
The ongoing outbreak of African swine fever and strong demand for processed food products drove the demand for imported meat in the eight months ending in August.
Meat import arrivals stood at 1.06 billion kilograms during the period. It was a 16.5-percent increase from 907.77 million kg in the same period a year ago. This is according to data from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI).
The volume is about 400,000 kg short of the 1.5 billion kg of meat that entered the archipelago in 2024.
“The impact of African swine fever still looms large as domestic hog prices refuse to come down,” said Jesus Cham, president emeritus of the Meat Importers and Traders Association.
“In the meantime, local chicken prices have started creeping up ostensibly in anticipation for the ber-months,” Cham said in a Viber message over the weekend.
Government data showed that pork, chicken and beef are the top meat imports to the Philippines. Cham said pork remained the most popular choice.
Pork and chicken cornered a large share of meat imports. According to Cham, a significant portion of pork and chicken imports are raw materials for processed products.
“This indicates a strong market for processed meat, and that fresh meats still remain relatively expensive,” he added.
Pork reached 573.09 million kg, up 27.3 percent year-on-year. This accounted for 54.2 percent of the total.
Chicken grew 6.6 percent to 322.01 million kg. It represented 30.5 percent of the meat import volume.
Beef totaled 131.99 million kg, making up 12.5 percent of the volume and rising 5.6 percent.
