Philippines: An Overview of the Philippine Department of Agriculture's Two-Stage Inspection Procedure for Imported Agricultural Products

The Philippines operates a two-stage inspection process to clear imported agricultural products. Under the Department of Agriculture (DA) Administrative Circular No. 6 (2022), DA conducts a physical inspection at the port (first stage, known as the first border) and at the authorized premise or warehouse (second stage, known as the second border). For meat and meat products, the Bureau of Animal Industry and National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) serve as the first and second border inspectors, respectively. The NMIS also implements Memorandum Circular No. 05-2023-011 (2023) to manage adverse food safety and quality findings during the conduct of meat inspection at the licensed cold storage warehouses.