Shipments of Brazilian meat products to the Philippines could hit a record high in 2018 due to the strong demand for poultry products, according to Brazillian Animal Protein Association (ABPA) Vice President of Market Ricardo Santin.
Brazil expects to resume the export of meat products to the Philippines next month after a team from the Department of Agriculture (DA) inspected Brazilian meat plants.
“The Brazilian exporters are prepared to supply the demand of Philippine market with quality products. If all the [processes] end by November, we hope to return the exports in the same level as before,” Santin told the BusinessMirror in an e-mail.
“Actually, we expect [shipments] to increase. In 2016 we exported 37,200 metric tons [MT]. We believe sales [in 2018] would be better than last year,” he added.
Santin said he and his group expect that the four-month import ban on Brazil meat imports would be lifted by the Philippine government in November. “It’s important to highlight: Brazil has invested even more in developing hard controls to guarantee quality production.”
In an interview with reporters on October 26, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said the DA inspection team has already recommended the lifting of the import ban on Brazil.
However, Piñol said he could not yet issue the order to resume the importation of Brazilian meat products.
“A recommendation has already been made to lift the ban, but we have to go through the process. We have to convene a body which has to come up with the decision on the lifting,” he said.
Industry sources told the BusinessMirror that the DA inspected 13 foreign meat establishments (FMEs) in Brazil from September 18 to 29. The inspection was conducted by two teams to fast-track the process.
Sources privy to the matter set the meat inspectors will consolidate their report and present it before the accreditation review board (ARB). The ARB will deliberate on the consolidated report and will make a final recommendation to Piñol.
The final decision on Brazilian meat imports could be issued around the third week of November, according to sources.
In August Piñol issued Memorandum Order (MO) 32, dated July 31, which authorized the temporary suspension of the accreditation of all Brazilian FMEs. Piñol made the issuance following the discovery of the existence of salmonella in some shipments.
“According to Memorandum Circular 9-2008-5, Series of 2008, entitled ‘Microbiological limits for assessment of microbiological quality fresh, chilled and frozen meat’, microbiological limits for salmonella spp. must be absent in 25 grams sample,” Piñol said in MO 32.
“A total of 246 out of 492 container vans were sampled and subjected to laboratory analysis from March 1 to June 30, wherein samples from 18 containers [7 percent] tested positive for salmonella spp.,” MO 32 read.
Earlier, the Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (Pampi) told the BusinessMirror that the government’s decision to ban meat imports from Brazil could cause the retail price of some processed-meat products to go up by as much as 15 percent.
Pampi also noted that the ban on Brazil contributed to the expected hike of meat products in this holiday season, as the Latin American country is one of the Philippines’s biggest source of raw materials.
“The country ban on Brazilian meats and [mechanically deboned meat (MDM)] has become very disappointing, but we have to respect [sanitary and phytosanitary] concerns of our DA for the protection of domestic livestock and poultry,” Pampi Executive Director Francisco Buencamino told the BusinessMirror in an earlier interview.
“The ban has caused a partial vacuum on supply of our raw materials. But we are hoping a resolution will be reached very soon,” Buencamino added.
Brazil is the Philippines’s top source of beef imports and among the top sources of raw materials, particularly MDM.
Data from the ABPA showed that Brazil’s poultry meat exports to the Philippines in January to July expanded by 35 percent to 32,339 MT, from 23,954 MT a year ago.
Brazil’s pork exports to the Philippines during the seven-month period reached 2,045 MT, 66.5 percent higher than the 1,228 MT recorded last year.
In 2016 the Philippines bought 37,625 MT of poultry meat from Brazil, up by almost 6 percent from 40,001 MT recorded in 2015, according to ABPA data.
APBA data also showed that Philippine pork imports from Brazil tripled to 3,263 MT last year.
Last year Brazil exported 55,581.853 MT of meat and meat products to the Philippines, according to the Bureau of Animal Industry’s data. The figure was 5.86 percent higher than the 52,505.429 MT recorded in 2015.