UK keen on shipping more poultry to Philippines

MANILA, Philippines —  The United Kingdom is keen on regaining its lost market share in the Philippine poultry market after finally being allowed to resume exports to the country following a three-year import ban due its bird flu outbreaks.

UK Ambassador Laure Beaufils welcomed the recent decision of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to lift the temporary import ban on British poultry products since March 5, 2021.

With the resumption of poultry trade between the two countries, Beaufils said both Philippine and British traders have to get “reacquainted” and recognize the market opportunities that they can tap.

“The first thing is to go back to where we were before. We have lost three years sadly,” Beaufils told reporters during a recent reception she hosted to celebrate the resumption of poultry trade between the two countries.

“Once they (get reacquainted) I think the sky is the limit because they will be importing large quantities. Poultry was in the past our second largest export to the Philippines,” she added.

Beaufils said that the UK shipped over 35 million kilos of poultry products to the Philippines from 2018 to 2022.

The UK was the country’s sixth-largest source of poultry imports, especially in the mechanically deboned meat segment.

The envoy also disclosed that the UK successfully forged a regionalization agreement with the Philippines concerning its poultry products.

Regionalization is an internationally recognized guideline on animal diseases wherein a country may limit its import ban only within the area of its trade partners that confirmed disease outbreaks.

That way, animal diseases will not hamper the bilateral trade of meat products.

Previously, the Philippines through the DA imposes a country-wide import ban on UK even if there is only one reported bird flu case in a small area or district.

Both the Meat Importers and Traders Association (MITA) and the Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (PAMPI) welcomed the reopening of the British market for poultry sources.

The groups said the lifting of the import ban would expand the options of traders and importers for their poultry supplies, thus, ensuring the country’s poultry meat security.