THE Department of Agriculture (DA) has allowed Spain, the country’s top source of imported pork products, to continue exporting pork and beef products to the Philippines until 2023.
The DA issued Department Order 14, Series of 2020 that granted the European country a system-wide accreditation to export pork and beef to the Philippines.
The DA said an inspection mission was sent to Sweden to inspect and audit the country’s foreign meat establishments (FME) that would export pork to the Philippines.
The DA added that based on its assessment, it found Spanish FMEs to be compliant with “Philippine quarantine and meat inspection systems procedures.”
“The Government of Spain has complied with the requirements provided in the Terrestrial Animal Health Code of the World Organization for Animal Health [Office International des Epizooties-OIE],” the order read.
“After thorough evaluation, the application of the Government of Sweden for system accreditation to export pork and beef meat into the Philippines has been found satisfactory and acceptable,” the order added.
The accreditation granted to Sweden is valid until April 2, 2023, according to the DO dated May 4,2020.
Spain could continue exporting pork carcasses and half-carcasses, hams, shoulders, pork cuts, edible offal, livers, among others to the Philippines, according to the order.
Spain could also export various beef meat products such as carcasses and half-carcasses; boneless; edible offal; tongues; livers, among others.
Spain is the country’s top supplier of imported pork, cornering about 36 percent of annual imported pork meat volume.
In 2019, the Philippines imported 122,511.533 metric tons of pork products from Spain, Bureau of Animal Industry data showed. Majority of buyers of pork products from Spain are local meat processors.