A DEFICIT in the trade of agricultural products widened in the fourth quarter of 2018, with import growth outstripping exports, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Thursday.
Total trade amounted to $5.23 billion during the period, up 15.9% from a year earlier, with exports at P1.66 billion, up 8.8% from a year earlier, and imports valued at $3.57 billion, up 19.6%.
PSA said exports were dominated by the top 10 commodity groups, which accounted for $1.58 billion, up 11.7% from a year earlier.
The top 10 consists of edible fruits and nuts, citrus fruit peels, and melons ($645.14 million); animal or vegetable fats, oils and their cleavage products, and prepared edible fats ($303.19 million); tobacco and manufactured tobacco substitutes ($128.06 million); preparations of meats, of fish, or of crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic invertebrates ($122.30 million); preparations of vegetables, fruits, nuts, or other parts of plants ($94.81 million); fish and crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic invertebrates ($91.72 million); preparations of cereals, flour, starch or milk, and pastry cooks’ products ($82.20 million); miscellaneous edible preparations ($44.56 million); lac, gums, resins and other vegetable saps and extracts ($42.67 million); residues and waste from the food industries, and prepared animal fodder ($28.77 million).
The top 10 import products, meanwhile, accounted for $743.55 million of the total, up 103.4% from a year earlier.
These are: cereals ($743.55 million); residues and waste from the food industries, prepared animal fodder ($438.63 million); sugar and sugar confectionery products ($190.64 million); animal or vegetable fats and oils, cleavage products, prepared edible fats ($269.57 million); meat and edible meat offal ($345.86 million); beverages, spirits and vinegar ($167.74 million); products of the milling industry: malt, starches, inulin, wheat gluten ($79.96 million); edible fruit and nuts, peel of citrus and melons ($158.35 million); dairy produce, birds’ eggs, natural honey, edible products of animal origin ($236.43 million); and miscellaneous edible preparations ($368.55 million).
Philippine exports to the European Union (EU) amounted to $269.09 million, with the Netherlands the top buyer at $120.62 million.
Imports from the EU amounted to $365.29 million, with the Netherlands also the top export source with $72.33 million.
Japan posted an agriculture trade surplus of $224.10 million, while Australia posted a deficit of $84.81 million. — Reicelene Joy N. Ignacio
