The country’s meat imports this year may exceed the 2019 volume based on the January to October shipments, which expanded by 8.5 percent to 760,000 metric tons (MT), as traders and processors bought more imported chicken meat and beef products.
Data from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) showed that meat imports in the 10-month period were 60,073.049 MT higher than last year’s 698,574.243 MT. Last year’s total meat imports reached a record high at 844,971.338 MT, based on BAI data.
BAI data also indicated that chicken meat and beef imports remained as the drivers for the overall increase in meat imports as growth in these two products was able to offset the 28-percent decline in pork purchased from abroad.
“We could see relatively larger import this calendar year but weak imports in the first half next year,” Meat Importers and Traders Association President Jesus C. Cham told the BusinessMirror.
Cham said the increase in chicken imports could be attributed to stronger consumer appetite for processed meat coupled by lower prices for chicken cuts and leg quarters.
He added that meat processors could also be importing more mechanically deboned meat (MDM) of chicken as they are hedging against the possibility that tariff on these products will increase next year.
“[Imports of] whole chicken increased but arrived in the first quarter—these were ordered last year in anticipation of a shift from pork to poultry.”
The country’s chicken meat imports during the period grew by almost 30 percent to 347,561.455 MT from last year’s 267,852.773 MT, BAI data showed.
BAI data also indicated that imports of chicken MDM, a raw material used for making processed meat products, grew by 30.6 percent to 235,696.105 MT from last year’s 180,383.425 MT.
The country’s imports of chicken cuts grew 61 percent to 34,902.924 MT while purchases of chicken leg quarters from abroad grew by 18.46 percent to 67,019.42 MT.
According to the agency attached to the Department of Agriculture, whole chicken imports more than quadrupled to 624.406 MT, from last year’s 140.661 MT.
BAI data also indicated that beef imports rose by 48.43 percent to 171,713.237 MT from last year’s 115,680.697 MT.
Shipments of beef cuts grew by 42 percent while beef fats rose by 46.83 percent on an annual basis. Likewise, imports of beef choice cuts more than doubled during the 10-month period.
The country’s 10-month imports of beef cuts were at 100,526.523 MT while choice cuts and beef fats reached 28,945.958 MT and 29,191.501 MT, respectively.
Cham said the increase in beef cuts and choice cuts could be attributed to higher demand from online sales and consumers shifting from pork while growth in beef fats was driven by higher demand from canned meat processors.
Pork imports during the 10-month period declined by 28.59 percent to 205,535.416 MT from last year’s 287,825.814 MT due to high prices.