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February 23, 2025 | 12:00am
A customer looks at pork cuts at a meat stall in a Manila public market.
STAR / File
MANILA, Philippines — The country’s meat imports rose to a record high of 1.45 million metric tons (MT) in 2024, driven by higher pork and chicken meat purchases abroad, according to the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI).
Meat purchases abroad last year rose by 20 percent from the 1.204 million MT in 2023.
The total meat import volume last year eclipsed the previous record high of 1.36 million MT recorded in 2022 by 6.6 percent, BAI data showed.
Pork imports, which accounted for half of the total meat import volume, rose by 24 percent to 733,729 MT last year from 591,888 MT in 2023.
It was followed by chicken meat imports which rose by 10 percent to 472,211 MT from 426,619 MT. Chicken meat imports accounted for 33 percent of the country’s total meat imports.
BAI data also showed that beef imports expanded by 40 percent year-on-year to 203,898 MT from 145,002 MT. Turkey meat imports also nearly doubled to 1,345 MT from 698 MT.
Meanwhile, the country’s imports of buffalo meat, duck meat and lamb meat all declined on an annual basis last year. Buffalo meat imports fell by three percent to 37,795 MT while duck meat imports declined by 27 percent to 221 MT.
Lamb meat imports decreased by 10 percent to 653 MT in 2024 from 727 MT in 2023.
Industry players have attributed the increase in meat imports last year to the need to augment domestic stocks to prevent a spike in retail prices of certain meat items, particularly pork.
The Department of Agriculture earlier said that meat imports, particularly pork, tempered the possible rise in retail prices due to the decimation of domestic hog inventory from continued devastation and threats of African swine fever.
The top five sources of meat imports last year were Brazil (536,340 MT), the United States (220,132 MT), Spain (176,273 MT), Canada (116,700 MT) and Australia (75,245 MT).
