Wheat Tops List of Imported Cereals in the Philippines

Filipino importers purchased almost a billion dollars’ worth of wheat (US$982.1 million) from foreign suppliers during 2015. That metric far surpasses the combined total for all other imported cereals. In second place, Philippine imports of rice amounted to $464.7 million followed by imported corn at $177.6 million.

Overall, the value of wheat imported into the Philippines appreciated by 2.8% from $955.3 million in 2011.

Just $291,000 worth of wheat was exported from the Philippines in 2015. According to WORLD-GRAINS.com, there is no commercial production of wheat or small grains such as oats and barley in the Philippines.

Top Wheat Suppliers to the Philippines

Listed below are the top 10 countries that supplied 99.9% of total wheat shipments to Filipino importers during 2015. Shown within brackets is the percentage change in the value of each country’s supplied wheat.

1. United States: $536.2 million (54.6% of Philippines’ wheat imports)
2. Australia: $134.4 million (13.7%)
3. Ukraine: $131.8 million (13.4%)
4. Canada: $88.4 million (9%)
5. Brazil: $59.7 million (6.1%)
6. France: $14.2 million (1.4%)
7. Vietnam: $10.1 million (1%)
8. Netherlands Antilles: $3.8 million (0.4%)
9. India: $1.7 million (0.2%)
10. Moldova: $674,000 (0.1%)

America collected over half of the total revenue collected from the Philippines for imported wheat during 2015, down by 12% from $612 million in 2011.

Imported wheat from India (down by 92.1%) and Australia (down by 49.1%) depreciated at an even faster rate over the 5-year period.

Other countries have increased their wheat exports sold to Filipino importers.

Fastest-growing Wheat Suppliers to the Philippines

The fastest-gaining wheat exporter, Brazil grew its wheat shipments to the Philippines by 514.3% from 2011 to 2015.

Also posting double-digit improvements were Vietnam (up in value by 221.2%) and Ukraine (up by 139.6%).

Canadian suppliers attained a more modest but still respectable increase in money earned from wheat exports, up by 9% from $58.5 million in 2011 to $88.4 million for 2015.

Research Resources
The World Factbook, Field Listing: Imports – Commodities, Central Intelligence Agency. Accessed on August 4, 2016

International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on August 4, 2016

Wikipedia, Grain trade. Accessed on August 4, 2016

Wikipedia, Wheat. Accessed on August 4, 2016

WORLD-GRAIN.com, Philippines wheat imports forecast to decline. Accessed on August 4, 2016