THE Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the country’s total value of agricultural trade amounted to $21.22 billion or 11.6 percent of the total trade last year.
The figure is a 5 percent improvement compared to 2018’s $20.22 billion total agricultural trade.
The Philippines’ agricultural export revenue went up by 9.1 percent to $6.68 billion last year from $6.12 billion agricultural export in the previous year led by income from the export of edible fruit and nuts and peel of citrus fruit melons commodity group.
PSA said the total value of agricultural exports of the top ten commodity groups reached $6.39 billion or 95.7 percent of the total agricultural export revenue in 2019, a ten percent improvement from the $5.77 billion in 2018.
Apart from edible fruits, nuts and peel of citrus fruits, other top agricultural agri exports include animal and vegetable fats and oils; preparation of vegetables, fruit, nuts or other plants; preparation of meat of fish, crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic invertebrates; as well as tobacco and its substitutes.
The country’s agricultural exports to Asean member countries in 2019 only amounted to $757.73 million or 7 percent of the total exports to Asean member countries.
The top three major agricultural commodities exported by the Philippines to Asean member countries in 2019 were tobacco and manufactured tobacco substitutes at $277.36 million; animal or vegetable fats and oils and their cleavage products; prepared edible fats; animal or vegetable waxes at $117.00 million; and preparations of cereals, flour, starch or milk; pastrycooks’ products at $78.29 million.
PSA data showed the country’s major trading partner in export of agricultural goods among European Union (EU) member countries is the Netherlands as it purchased a total of $486.13 million or 44.1 percent of the total agricultural exports to EU member countries.
The total exports of agricultural goods to EU member countries in 2019 amounted to $1.1 billion.
