Food retailers rake in $46.3 billion sales in 2017

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s food retail industry continued to expand last year amid growing consumer spending backed by sustained strong economy, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said.

Based on the latest report of the USDA Global Agricultural Information Network, the local food retail market rose six percent to $46.3 billion with Filipino households spending more than half of their expenditures on food.

“With increasing urbanization, a growing middle class, and a large, young population, the Philippines’ economic dynamism is rooted in consumer demand supported by rising incomes and robust remittances from overseas,” the agency said.

Expenditures for food and non-alcoholic beverages comprised 38.7 percent of the total household final consumption expenditure, which rose 5.6 percent last year.

The country’s traditional food retailer “sari-sari” stores still dominated the food retail market, which accounted for 58 percent.

USDA said the continuous expansion of the local food retail industry creates robust opportunities for US exporters of high-value, consumer-oriented food and beverage products.

The Philippines is the largest market in Southeast Asia and the 12th largest export market in the world for US consumer-oriented food and beverage products, importing a total of $964.3 million in 2017.

The US also remains the Philippines’ largest supplier of food, beverage and ingredient products with a 16 percent share of the market.  It is followed by Indonesia, China, New Zealand, Thailand, Singapore and Australia with total imports of consumer-oriented food growing  at an  annual average of 10 percent.

“The potential for greater imports of US consumer-oriented food and beverage products to the Philippine retail sector is high for a wide diversity of products, including beef, pork, poultry, seafood, processed vegetables, fresh and processed fruits, nuts, dairy products, juices, alcoholic beverages, condiments and sauces, processed organic foods, bakery goods, snacks, and confectioneries,” USDA said.