The Philippine Star reports that BAI data showed that as of 13 December, chicken imports had reached 97,197 tonnes compared to total imports of 67,265 tonnes for the whole of 2009.

Pork imports reached 172,626 tonnes from January to December last year, compared to only 114,365 tonnes for the whole of 2009.

The high increase is being criticised by local chicken and pork producers, who claim that their viability is threatened.

BAI figures show that there has been an increase in imports of chicken cuts, chicken leg quarters, whole chicken, deboned chicken and offals, while there has been a decline in imports of chicken fat and rind/skin.

As for pork, there has been a continued increase in all imports of pork cuts, pork bellies, deboned pork, fats, offals and pork rind/skin.

Imports of chicken cuts as of 13 December 2010 year amounted to 3,241 tonnes from the 2,993 tonnes imported in 2009.

Imports of chicken leg quarters increased by more than 10,000 tonnes last year to a total of 36,831 tonnes compared to the previous year's imports of only 26,372 tonnes.

Imports of whole chicken more than doubled last year to 603.2 tonnes compared to the 250.8 tonnes imported in 2009.

Likewise, imports of deboned chicken also increased this year to 56,064 tonnes compared to imports last year amounting to only 36,887 tonnes.

There was also a noticeable increase in imports of chicken offals this year with imports tripling to 121.1 tonnes compared to 2009's imports amounting to only 40.4 tonnes.

A decline in imports, on the other hand, was registered in chicken fats from 211.5 tonnes in 2009 to only 103.7 tonnes in 2010.

Likewise, imports of chicken rind/skin in 2010 fell to 232.2 tonnes from 510.7 tonnes the previous year.

According to The Philippine Star, imports of all kinds of pork products, on the other hand, registered significant increases with pork bellies almost doubling last year to 15,792 tonnes from only 8,587 tonnes in 2009.

Pork cuts imports increased to 54,876 tonnes in 2010 from only 34,196 tonnes the previous year.

Imports of pork offals also almost doubled to 52,502 tonnes from 28,959 tonnes in 2009.

Imports of deboned pork almost quadrupled to 108 tonnes from 27 tonnes in 2009, while imports of pork rind/skin increased to 20,461 tonnes in 2010 from 16,196 tonnes the previous year.

Pork fat imports were 28,888 tonnes in 2010 from 26,399 tonnes the previous year, reports The Philippine Star.