Year over year, the value of imported cheese shipped to the Philippines increased by 13.9% in 2015 compared to $79.8 million during 2014.
The Philippines generated a mere $1.5 million in cheese exports, a very small percentage compared to the island country’s $90.8 million worth of imported cheese for 2015.
The four-digit Harmonized Tariff System code (HTS) prefix is 4406 for cheese (a product category which technically also includes cheese curd).
Read on to find out learn the most popular types of cheese bought from international sources. Also learn which country singlehandedly supplied over half of Filipino cheese imports during 2015.
Imported Cheese Cravings in the Philippines
- Cheese Types
- Top 10 Suppliers
- Resources
Cheese Types
When it comes to tastes in different types of imported cheese, Filipinos prefer aged cheeses over common processed cheese and fresh unripened cheese.
Below are the most popular types of imported cheese by category.
- Aged cheese: US$47.8 million (52.6% of all Filipino cheese imports)
- Grated or powdered cheese: $14.4 million (15.9%)
- Ungrated and unpowdered processed cheese: $14.2 million (15.6%)
- Fresh unripened cheese: $14.1 million (15.5%)
- Blue-veined cheese: $304,000 (0.3%)
Grated or powdered cheese is the fastest-growing type of cheese imported into the Philippines, up 301.8% from $3.6 million in 2011. The only other category to increase in value over the 5-year period was aged cheese posting a 57% improvement.
Purchases of fresh unripened cheese declined by -31.8% from 2011 to 2015, trailed by a -25.7% drop for already thin import sales for blue-veined cheese.
Imports of ungrated and unpowdered processed cheese were flat, sporting a modest -0.7% decrease.