Industry groups flag rising chicken imports from China

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April 21, 2026 | 12:00am

Smuggled?

MANILA, Philippines — China’s chicken meat exports to the Philippines are steadily on the rise, according to an international report, but local industry players contend that shipments are being smuggled since Chinese poultry has been banned for more than a decade.

Sources also warned that the imported chicken meat from China may pose health risks due to bird flu outbreaks affecting its industry.

In its latest report, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said Chinese exports of chicken meat have been steadily increasing from 2020 to 2025. China is the world’s second largest producer of chicken meat, valued at $2.59 billion in 2025.

Data showed that exports of Chinese chicken meat to the country reached 4,087 metric tons in 2020, 10,233 MT in 2021, 11,909 MT in 2022, 12,325 MT in 2023, 12,422 MT in 2024 and spiked to 20,904 MT in 2025.

“Between 2020 and 2025, China chicken meat production increased, and new markets opened which resulted in a shifting export profile,” the USDA said, noting that the East Asian country was a net importer of chicken before 2024.

United Broiler Raisers Association chairman Elias Jose Inciong said that shipments from chicken meat shipments from China were likely smuggled into the country amid an ongoing ban put in place since 2014.

“Those are smuggled and a possible loophole around the ban is that they are declared as cooked chicken meat,” Inciong told The STAR.

Jesus Cham, president emeritus of the Meat Importers and Traders Association, said that fully cooked chicken products from China are allowed, driving rising exports to the Philippines.

“There could well be contraband, but I have seen some fully cooked chicken products from China in the Philippines,” Cham told The STAR.

The Department of Agriculture had ordered a ban on chicken meat from China due to an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza or bird flu since 2014.

According to USDA trade data, Chinese chicken meat exports were composed of frozen cuts (55 percent), prepared or preserved meat (38 percent) and chilled whole birds (six percent).

China has no accreditation to export any meat products to the Philippines, according to a list of accredited exporting countries from the National Meat Inspection Service as of Dec. 31, 2025.

Meanwhile, Inciong also warned Chinese chicken meat exports may pose a risk to the Philippines’ chicken industry and local health due to the co-mingling of cooked and uncooked meat.

“The danger there is if there is co-mingling of cooked and frozen meat during shipment, years ago, regulation against exports from China were tighter. Despite that bird flu still got into the country in 2017,” he added.

Close contact to infected birds may lead to severe respiratory illnesses or deaths in humans.

Cham, however, argued that risks of another bird flu from Chinese chicken products outbreak remains minimal. “Governments and producers normally exaggerate the risks.”

Bird flu has decimated the Philippines’ poultry industry, leading to lower production, mass cullings and higher prices for chicken and eggs. Pockets of ongoing bird flu outbreaks remain despite government efforts to end further spread of the animal-borne disease.