Government simplifies licensing of meat establishments

Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!

Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.

Visit Suniway.ph to learn

December 14, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) plans to introduce new guidelines to make it easier for meat businesses like slaughterhouses, cold storage facilities and meat cutting plants to secure their licenses to operate while keeping food safety standards in place.

NMIS is inviting the public and concerned stakeholders to participate in a virtual consultation on the draft rules via Google Meet on Dec. 15.

“This consultation seeks feedback on interim guidelines to streamline the license to operate process for meat establishments, ensuring food safety and compliance,” NMIS said in its advisory.

“Stakeholders from the meat industry, government, suppliers and consumers are encouraged to participate. The guidelines aim to promote safer, more transparent meat operations,” it added.

Under the revised implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act 9296, as amended by Republic Act 10536, NMIS evaluates and classifies meat establishments through an accreditation system.

Each facility is assigned a unique accreditation or registration number to help trace the products it produces.

The Accreditation and Registration Division oversees licensing, registration of meat transport vehicles and certification to ensure compliance with national standards.

Meat establishments covered under the law include slaughterhouses, poultry dressing plants, meat cutting plants, cold storage warehouses and meat distribution centers where food animals or meat products are slaughtered, prepared, processed, handled, packed or stored for national or international distribution.

New or initial licenses valid for six months, renewals and good manufacturing practice certifications will last one year and combined renewal of licenses and GMP certification will have a validity of three years.

In 2023, the country slaughtered a total of 736.39 million hogs, producing 274.37 million kilos of pork.

This marked a modest increase of 2.68 percent compared to 2022, reflecting steady demand for pork in local markets.

Chicken production saw 739.26 million birds slaughtered, yielding 1.16 billion kilos of meat for the year.

This represented a decline of 6.38 percent from the previous year, indicating some slowdown in poultry processing and supply.

Beef production also fell in 2023, with a total of 135,417 cattle slaughtered across regions.

The volume of meat harvested from these animals reached 21.42 million kilos, down by12.3 percent from 2022.

Carabao meat production experienced the sharpest decline, with 68,920 carabaos slaughtered and a total yield of 12.66 million kilos.

This was 21.4 percent lower than the previous year, highlighting continuing challenges in buffalo production and processing.