Chile sees Philippines as market for pork

MANILA, Philippines — Chile sees strong growth potential for pork exports to the Philippines amid the country’s growing population and its fight with African swine fever (ASF).

In an email to The STAR, ChilePork — which represents Chile’s pork exporters—said the Philippines is a new market and “the possibilities of growth in terms of volume and value exported for pork to this destination are great.”

ChilePork said the Philippines has a “high, deep-rooted and growing consumption of pork” of close to 20 kilograms per capita and has a significant and continued import history of pork of between 300,000 and 450,000 tons per year, or about 18 percent of local requirement.

“It is a market where pork is a transcendental part of its gastronomy and consumer products other than those that Chile exports to Japan, South Korea or China,” it said.

The Philippines is also   fighting the spread of ASF since July 2019, which has wiped out half of the country’s hog population.

“In this sense, Chile has an opportunity, given that it has positioned itself as a country with high health and biosafety standards, which gives rise to Filipino importers,” ChilePork said.

In a networking event last month, Chilean Ambassador to the Philippines Álvaro Jara said the Philippine market “offers great opportunities for Chilean meat exports, especially pork. The Philippines is a country of more than 110 million people and by 2050 they will be 150 million.”

“It’s an economy that grows six percent each year and needs to ensure enough food for its population, largely through imports,” he said.

In the same event, Chile­Carne president Juan Carlos Domínguez expressed optimism about the prospects for Chilean meat exports to the Philippines.

“We are back here in Manila, promoting ChilePork for the second year in a row. Three years ago, we were finally cleared to export our chicken and pork from Chile to this country,” he said.

Domínguez also highlighted the need for importers, distributors, and opinion leaders to learn about the quality of Chilean pork and what sets it apart in the global industry.

Chile began its pork trade to the Philippines in January 2021 after the Department of Agriculture (DA) accredited six Chilean companies to export pork products.

The accreditations of the same six establishments were renewed after they expired in April.

In 2022, the Chilean Meat Exporters’ Association (ChileCarne) and the Chilean Exports Promotion Bureau (ProChile) officially launched the ChilePork brand in the Philippines.

As of September, the Philippines has imported 4.94 million kilograms of pork from Chile, just 1.08 percent of the total pork imports, based on data from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI).

Last year, BAI data showed that pork imports from Chile amounted to 3.88 million kilograms or roughly 0.55 percent of the total shipments.