September 3, 2025
Brazil-Philippines poultry trade goes regional as US negotiations progress
Brazil clinched a regionalisation agreement with the Philippines, guaranteeing continued access for its poultry exports amid persistent avian flu concerns.
A county-level regionalisation scheme is also underway for the United States, which further scales down the current state-wide import ban on poultry shipments to the Philippines during ongoing outbreaks.
The Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) OIC-Director Christian Daquigan said that other accredited countries have also signified their intent to forge a regionalization agreement with the Philippines, including France and New Zealand.
"[Brazil] has a regionalisation [agreement with the Philippines]," Daquigan told the Business Mirror on the sidelines of a Senate hearing of the Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform on Monday.
"We're also working out a regionalisation agreement with the US on a county level, but we've only inspected live animals from them. We're still waiting for meat to be included," he added.
Last May, the Department of Agriculture (DA) issued a circular, which outlined the requirements for accredited countries that wish to secure bilateral recognition of areas free of animal diseases like bird flu.
Under the regionalisation agreement, the Philippines will restrict shipments of live birds and their products only from certain areas with confirmed avian flu cases instead of imposing a country-wide ban.
The Philippines has an existing High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (HPAI) regionalisation agreement with the US and United Kingdom.
For the US, a state-wide ban should only be imposed if there are three or more counties affected by bird flu.
"The occurrence of HPAI from exporting countries and the imposition of a whole country temporary ban limits the sources of day-old chicks, parent stocks and poultry meat, which in turn affects the prices," the circular read.
- Business Mirror
