Philippines accepts safe UK poultry

The Philippines will let poultry imports enter from bird flu-free parts of the United Kingdom instead of blocking the whole country. (manilatimes.net) The Department of Agriculture said on April 21 that it recognizes the United Kingdom’s regionalization system for highly pathogenic avian influenza, the virus better known as bird flu. Under that system, only affected districts face import restrictions. (msn.com) That changes the old approach the Philippines used in March 2021, when it imposed a temporary ban on UK poultry after outbreaks in South Derbyshire, England. The ban covered domestic and wild birds and products including poultry meat, day-old chicks, eggs and semen. (business.inquirer.net) The two governments had already reopened the trade in September 2024 after that three-year ban. The British Embassy in Manila said the return of UK poultry was formalized through Department of Agriculture Memorandum Order No. 34. (gov.uk) Regionalization means farms, hatcheries and slaughterhouses in outbreak zones cannot export, while facilities in unaffected areas can keep shipping under health protocols. The UK government said that setup is meant to preserve trade even if isolated outbreaks return. (gov.uk) Philippine regulators have been moving in that direction more broadly. In February 2025, the Bureau of Animal Industry said country-wide bans can cut off supplies of day-old chicks, parent stocks and poultry meat and push prices higher. (business.inquirer.net) In May 2025, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. signed Administrative Circular 9, which set rules for accredited countries seeking Philippine recognition of disease-free zones. BusinessMirror reported that the Philippines already had regionalization agreements with the United States and the United Kingdom at that point. (businessmirror.com.ph) The trade stakes are not small. Before the ban, the UK was the Philippines’ sixth-largest poultry supplier, and more than 35 million kilograms were traded from 2018 to 2022, according to the British Embassy. (gov.uk) Chicken is also a large part of the Philippines’ meat import bill. The Bureau of Animal Industry told the Inquirer that chicken imports made up 32.6 percent of the 1.5 billion kilograms of meat imported in 2024. (business.inquirer.net) The result is a narrower rule: outbreak areas stay shut out, but poultry from certified low-risk UK zones can keep moving into the Philippines. That gives Manila a way to guard against bird flu without reverting to a blanket ban. (manilatimes.net)