Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Agriculture and Livestock Minister André de Paula are visiting the Philippines from 13 to 16 November, taking part in the 49th ASEAN Summit, with a Brazil-Philippines Business Forum on food and energy on 14 November. The two countries have had diplomatic ties for 80 years, but this is the first visit by a sitting Brazilian president.
The Philippines bought $1.84 billion of Brazilian goods, according to Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture, and meat, including pork, beef and chicken, made up 86 per cent of it. It is the largest buyer of Brazilian pork: 34,700 tons in October, down from 46,300 tons in October last year, according to the Brazilian Animal Protein Association (ABPA).
The visit comes after the Philippines imposed a 60-day ban on pork imports over concerns for its own hog farms, which are still recovering from African swine fever. Falling farm prices cost Philippine producers P27.9 billion, about $440 million, in the first seven months of this year, the Philippine Department of Agriculture said.
"Rebuilding the hog industry requires more than short-term price interventions," Philippine Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr. said, adding that legal, regulatory and industry reforms aim to bring the national herd back to its pre-ASF level of about 13 million head by the end of 2028.
Brazil has meanwhile opened other markets. Vietnam, which bought $3.5 billion of Brazilian farm goods in 2025, approved red bovine offal; the Malaysian state of Sarawak approved pork products, cattle and buffalo embryos, bovine semen and live cattle; Turkey approved live buffalo for breeding and slaughter; and Barbados approved beef, offal and meat products. With these deals, Brazil says, it has expanded its exports to 728 markets in 100 countries since the start of 2023.
Reported by Ryan Daily for AgNavigator.
Source: AgNavigator
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