The country’s total agricultural trade reached $7.36 billion during the fourth quarter of 2024, posting a year-on-year growth of 17.3 percent amid higher imports, according to the latest report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

This is an impressive turnaround from the same period in 2023, which tallied a total agricultural trade of $6.27 billion with a decline of 0.8 percent.

In the final three months of last year, total agricultural exports jumped to $2.17 billion from $1.62 billion in the prior year. This accounts for 12.4 percent of the Philippines’ total agricultural trade.

Overall, the value of agricultural exports represents a 29.5 percent share of the country’s total agricultural trade.

Meanwhile, agricultural imports reached $5.18 billion, registering an 11.6 percent increase from 2023’s $4.65 billion.

Such imports account for 16 percent of the country’s total imports and 70.5 percent of the total agricultural trade.

The PSA reported that the trade deficit in the fourth quarter of 2024 was tallied at $3.01 billion, which reflects a slight annual decrease of 0.1 percent. This marks an improvement from the third quarter, which posted an annual increase of 1.6 percent.

The top ten commodity groups in terms agricultural export value contributed $2.12 billion or a whopping 97.6 percent to the total agricultural export revenue for the Philippines in last year’s fourth quarter.

The commodity group composed of “animal, vegetable, or microbial fats and oils and their cleavage products; prepared edible fats; animal or vegetable waxes,” combined for a total value of $779.20 million—the largest share to the total agricultural exports with 35.9 percent.

This edged out the traditional top commodity of “edible fruits and nuts; peel of circus fruit or melons,” which posted the highest value of $501.12 million in the third quarter of 2023.

For 2024, this group of goods only recorded a 12.77 percent increase amounting to $565.43 million.

Other major exports include preparations of vegetables, fruits, nuts, or other parts of plants; tobacco and manufactured tobacco substitutes; and preparation of meat, fish, crustaceans, and others.

Meanwhile, the top ten commodity groups for agricultural imports saw another boost last year, amounting to $4.37 billion. This represents 84.2 percent of the total agricultural import revenue in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Cereal once again reigned supreme in this category, accounting for the largest share of $1.26 billion or 24.4 percent of the total value of agricultural imports. Last year, the commodity also topped the list with $1.06 billion.

The other top imports include meat and edible meat offal, miscellaneous edible preparations, residues and waste from the food industries, and animal, vegetable fats and oils and their cleavage products.

The Philippines’ agricultural imports from member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) amounted to $2.16 billion or 24.1 percent of the country’s total imports from the region.

Of these countries, Vietnam was the leading supplier of agricultural products to the Philippines, contributing $706.83 million to the country’s total value of agricultural imports.

Malaysia, on the other hand, ranked as the top buyer of Philippine agricultural exports, with a total value of $163.78 million or a share of 44.8 percent of the total value of exports to the ASEAN which amounts to $365.51 million.

For the European Union (EU), exports of agricultural products to its member countries reached $445.27 million or 24 percent of the country’s total value of exports to the region.

The Netherlands was once again the top destination of exports with a value of $273.23 million or a share of 61.4 percent of the total value of exports to the EU.

Spain was the country’s top supplier of agricultural commodities, with an import value of $94.78 million or a share of 23.9 percent of the total value of imports to the region, which equals to $396.97 million.