2Q farm imports down 11% on lower cereal, animal feed purchases

The value of farm products the Philippines imported in the second quarter dropped nearly 11 percent year-on-year to $4.32 billion, with the country’s top three agricultural imports—cereals, feed meal, and meat–all recording declines in both volume and value, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show. 

Imported cereal, primarily rice, show a 13 percent on-year decline in volume to 2.42 million metric tons while the value slipped by 6 percent to $888.2 million, or 20 percent of total farm imports. 

As biggest supplier of rice to the country, Vietnam was the leading supplier of agricultural products to the country among Southeast Asian nations, shipping a total $509.1 million worth of goods in the second quarter, mostly rice. Vietnam accounted for 934,730 tons of imported cereals, worth $361.2 million.

By contrast, another major source of imported rice, Thailand, only account for 39,810 tons of cereal imports in the second quarter.

The volume of imported animal fodder dropped 19 percent to 838,980 metric tons while value eased 17 percent to $518 million. Meat products, meantime, fell 12 percent to 312,480 tons worth $459.8 million, down 14 percent year-on-year.

PSA data showed the country’s total balance of trade in agricultural goods was at a deficit of $2.71 billion as the Philippines continued to be a net purchaser of farm goods in the global market. The Philippines’ agricultural exports in the second quarter was down 24 percent year-on-year to $1.61 billion.

Total trade in agricultural products in the second quarter fell 15 percent to $5.93 billion after sliding 8.5 percent to $5.91 billion in the first quarter. Total import of farm products in the first quarter was down 3.5 percent to $4.36 billion while exports was down 21 percent to $1.55 billion.