Eastern Visayas registered USD 145.37 million exports in February 2024. This indicated a 20.39 percent drop from the USD 182.61 million exports in February 2023. On the other hand, value of imports increased by more than a hundredfold (166.92%) or USD 311.63 million in February 2024 from USD 116.75 million in February 2023.

Consequently, the region posted a USD 166.26 million deficit in the total balance of trade in goods (BoT-G) in February 2024, in contrast with the USD 65.86 million trade surplus recorded in February 2023.

Total trade performance in February 2024 was USD 457.01 million, up by 52.66 percent compared with the USD 299.36 million total trade in February 2023.

EXPORTS

The total volume of goods exported by the region in February 2024 weighed 113.58 million kilograms with a total value of USD 145.37 million.

Copper and articles thereof commodity group still dominated the exports market with sales amounting to USD 141.34 million in February 2024. This comprised 97.23 percent of the total value of exports during the month. This was followed by the commodity group of ores, slag and ash valued at USD 2.10 million or 1.44 percent of the region’s total exports in February 2024. Other commodity groups contributed less than one percent to the total value of exports (Table 2).

Thailand as the major export market with USD 70.36 million worth of exports comprised 48.40 percent of the total value of exports in February 2024. Completing the top five (5) export destinations were People’s Republic of China with USD 27.02 million (18.58%); Vietnam with USD 19.27 million (13.25%); Republic of Korea with USD 10.91 million (7.50%); and Indonesia with USD 10.86 million (7.47%) (Table 3).

IMPORTS

Imported goods in February 2024 weighed 213.94 million kilograms valued at USD 311.63 million. 
The leading import commodity group was ores, slag and ash with import value of USD 254.13 million comprising 81.55 percent of the total value of imports of the region in February 2024. Imported cereals commodity group was worth USD 18.19 million or 5.84 percent of the total value of imports in February 2024. The commodity group of nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances; parts thereof worth USD 14.27 million was 4.58 percent of the region's total value of imports during the period in review. This was followed by the commodity group of mineral fuels, mineral oils, and products of their distillation; bituminous substances; mineral waxes valued at USD 11.90 million which accounted for 3.82 percent of the region’s total imports. Salt; sulfur; earths and stone; plastering materials, lime and cement commodity group worth USD 8.28 million was 2.66 percent. Other commodity groups were less than one percent of the region’s total imports in February 2024 (Table 4).

The main import supplier Chile, contributed USD 87.42 million or 28.05 percent of the total value of imports of the region in February 2024. The rest of the top five (5) import suppliers during the month were Peru with USD 76.96 million (24.70%); Brazil with USD 41.52 million (13.32%); Australia with USD 28.34 million (9.09%) and Vietnam with USD 18.20 million (5.84%) imports (Figure 3 and Table 5).

Technical Notes

Export and Import Trade Statistics are compiled by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) from copies of export and import documents submitted to the Bureau of Customs (BOC) by exporters and importers or their authorized representatives as required by law. PSA collects copies of the following accomplished forms:

1. Export Declaration (ED – DTI form)

2. Import Entry & Internal Revenue Declaration (BOC IEIRD Form 236)

3. Informal Import Declaration and Entry (BOC Form 177)

4. Single Administrative Documents (SAD)

The output of the Automated Export Documentation System (AEDS) of the BOC is being utilized to generate export statistics. AEDS is a paperless transaction in lieu of the manual filling-up of export documents.

Moreover, an electronic copy of the IEIRD, or SAD, is utilized to capture the monthly import figures. SAD-IEIRD is an on-line submission of import documents either by brokers or companies. These are transactions that pass through the Automated Cargo Operating System (ACOS), now called the e2m (electronic to mobile) customs system, a system implemented through the BOC e-Customs Project.

All documents (hard copies and e-files) received before the cut-off date which is every 25th day of the month, are compiled, processed and generated in monthly statistical tables for the preparation of Press Release. All documents received after the cut-off date, however, are processed and included in the generation of the revised monthly statistical tables. Final data revisions are made annually during the first quarter after the reference year to include documents received after the monthly revisions.

The digitized copies of all documents are provided by BOC and PEZA to PSA on a monthly basis through email.

The 2019 Philippine Standard Commodity Classification (PSCC) is used to classify the commodities at the most detailed 10-digit code level for statistical purposes.

SGD. WILMA A. PERANTE   
Regional Director