The value of agricultural products that the Philippines will import from the United States this year would likely reach $2.75 billion, 10 percent higher than the $2.5-billion import bill recorded last year, according to the latest report of the Global Agricultural Information Network (Gain) report.
The GAIN report, prepared by the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) in Manila, attributed the increase in the growing demand for food-related imports from the country’s expanding food sector.
“Traders forecast export sales in 2017 to increase by 7 percent to $2.75 billion. Consumer-oriented food and beverage (F&B) products remain the best prospects for future export growth, fueled by consumer confidence in the quality of American products and the steady expansion of the country’s retail, foodservice and food processing sectors.”
The GAIN report noted that the projected $2.75 billion worth of agricultural imports this year is the highest value of in-bound shipments made by Manila from Washington since at least 1970.
The Philippines’s import bill for F&B products this year is projected to breach the $1-billion mark, increasing by at least 2 percent from last year’s $923 million recorded value, according to the report. In-bound shipment of F&B products is estimated to account for at least 36 percent of the Philippines’s total agricultural imports from the US this year.
Source: businessmirror.com.ph
