Audio: Uncertain Regulatory Environment Creates Mixed Results in the Philippines
Published: Sep 19, 2011
Recently the Philippines has been a very bullish growth market for U.S. red met exports. Just five years ago, the Philippines represented only about a $12 million per year market for U.S. pork and about $6 million per year for U.S. beef. But the market performed extremely well in ensuing years, soaring to new records in 2010 of $103 million for U.S. pork and almost $30 million for U.S. beef. This represented impressive year-over-growth of about 35 percent for each commodity, and made the Philippines a top ten market for U.S. pork.
As U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) Senior Vice President for the Asia Pacific Joel Haggard explains, strong demand for processed meats has been one of the key reasons for this success.
But Haggard says an uncertain regulatory environment has created mixed results in the Philippines in 2011. U.S. beef continues to flourish with growth of more than 30 percent in volume and 40 percent in value. But the Filipino pork industry has put intense pressure on the government to heavily regulate the sale of imported fresh or frozen meat. The impact of these proposed regulations could be much greater on pork than on beef, and it has made Filipino pork importers very cautious in their purchasing this year. As a result, U.S. pork exports to this market are down by about one-third in volume compared to last year, and down about 22 percent in value.
TRANSCRIPT:
JOE SCHUELE: This is Joe Schuele with the U.S. Meat Export Federation report. In recent years, the Philippines has been a bullish growth market for U.S. red meat exports. Just five years ago, the country represented only about a $12 million per year market for U.S. pork and about $6 million for U.S. beef. But the Philippines performed extremely well in ensuing years, soaring to new records in 2010 of $103 million for U.S. pork and almost $30 million for U.S. beef. As USMEF Senior Vice President Joel Haggard explains, strong demand for processed meats has been one of the key reasons for this success.
JOEL HAGGARD: The Philippines is an interesting market. For those not familiar with the country there is a lot of processed meat consumption. Much of the demand for red meat, poultry and any protein that can be further processed is a price proposition. We saw excellent sales in 2010.
JOE SCHUELE: But Haggard says an uncertain regulatory environment has created mixed results for this market in 2011. U.S. beef continues to flourish with about 40 percent growth, but the threat of new regulations has caused U.S. pork exports to slow by about 1/3 in volume and about 22 percent in value.
JOEL HAGGARD: There are several potential access issues now, but they’re of a nature which is giving some trepidation for traders to import. The regulation is to mandate a cold chain for all fresh and frozen imported meat. This obviously scares some because there is so much meat sold through the wet markets, frozen imported meats that are defrosted and sold through these wet markets. There’s been some trepidation again that those rules would see the imported product shrink in the wet market, which is one of our big markets now with some of those lower priced commodity items. At this point, these are just scares. They haven’t implemented the legislation nationwide to establish this cold chain, but it’s causing some pull back and some concern about the flow of product if this was to be implemented.
JOE SCHUELE: For more on this and other trade issues please visit USMEF.org.
As U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) Senior Vice President for the Asia Pacific Joel Haggard explains, strong demand for processed meats has been one of the key reasons for this success.
But Haggard says an uncertain regulatory environment has created mixed results in the Philippines in 2011. U.S. beef continues to flourish with growth of more than 30 percent in volume and 40 percent in value. But the Filipino pork industry has put intense pressure on the government to heavily regulate the sale of imported fresh or frozen meat. The impact of these proposed regulations could be much greater on pork than on beef, and it has made Filipino pork importers very cautious in their purchasing this year. As a result, U.S. pork exports to this market are down by about one-third in volume compared to last year, and down about 22 percent in value.
TRANSCRIPT:
JOE SCHUELE: This is Joe Schuele with the U.S. Meat Export Federation report. In recent years, the Philippines has been a bullish growth market for U.S. red meat exports. Just five years ago, the country represented only about a $12 million per year market for U.S. pork and about $6 million for U.S. beef. But the Philippines performed extremely well in ensuing years, soaring to new records in 2010 of $103 million for U.S. pork and almost $30 million for U.S. beef. As USMEF Senior Vice President Joel Haggard explains, strong demand for processed meats has been one of the key reasons for this success.
JOEL HAGGARD: The Philippines is an interesting market. For those not familiar with the country there is a lot of processed meat consumption. Much of the demand for red meat, poultry and any protein that can be further processed is a price proposition. We saw excellent sales in 2010.
JOE SCHUELE: But Haggard says an uncertain regulatory environment has created mixed results for this market in 2011. U.S. beef continues to flourish with about 40 percent growth, but the threat of new regulations has caused U.S. pork exports to slow by about 1/3 in volume and about 22 percent in value.
JOEL HAGGARD: There are several potential access issues now, but they’re of a nature which is giving some trepidation for traders to import. The regulation is to mandate a cold chain for all fresh and frozen imported meat. This obviously scares some because there is so much meat sold through the wet markets, frozen imported meats that are defrosted and sold through these wet markets. There’s been some trepidation again that those rules would see the imported product shrink in the wet market, which is one of our big markets now with some of those lower priced commodity items. At this point, these are just scares. They haven’t implemented the legislation nationwide to establish this cold chain, but it’s causing some pull back and some concern about the flow of product if this was to be implemented.
JOE SCHUELE: For more on this and other trade issues please visit USMEF.org.