Meat imports breach 1 million tons in 7 months

MANILA, Philippines — The country imported more than a million metric tons of meat from January to July, boosted by rising pork and chicken deliveries.

Latest data from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) showed total meat imports rose to 1.02 million metric tons in the seven-month period, 11 percent higher than the 919,842 MT reported in the same period last year.

Making up more than half of all imports during the period, pork meat imports expanded by 10 percent to 541,405 MT from 490,825 MT in the same period in 2025.

Shipments of pork from abroad included pork cuts, which reached 233,115 MT, while imports of pork offals hit 162,745 MT. In the first seven months, purchases of pork bellies and pork fat amounted to 77,444 MT and 43,991, respectively.

The government adjusted its pork importation policy to stabilize local supply and prices through Executive Order 116, which raised the minimum access volume for imported pork to 204,210 MT from 54,210 MT.

The BAI also reported that chicken meat imports increased by 15 percent to 335,669 MT from January to July, from 292,609 MT the previous year.

Purchases of mechanically deboned meat (MDM), which accounted for more than half of all chicken meat imports, totaled 195,370 MT in the seven-month period.

Meat processors typically use MDM as a key ingredient to manufacture products like hotdog and meat loaf.

Meanwhile, imports of beef remained relatively unchanged in the seven-month period at 110,570 MT, slightly lower than the 110,948 MT the previous year.

Most of the country’s purchases of beef were cuts amounting to 71,755 MT and beef fat at 21,488 MT.

The country’s top sources for meat from January to July was Brazil at 491,199 MT, followed by the US at 127,381 MT and Australia at 54,107MT.