Eastern Visayas’ external trade in goods amounted to USD 570.16 million in November 2024. This indicated a 7.4 percent increase compared with the  USD 530.98 million total trade in November 2023.
 
Of the total external trade in November 2024, 32.5 percent were exported goods, while 67.5 were imported goods.

Total export value in November 2024 was USD 185.02 million, indicating a 29.2 percent annual decline from the USD 261.41 million export in November 2023. Whereas, total import value posted an annual increase of 42.9 percent  to USD 385.14 million in November 2024 from the USD 269.57 million import value in November 2023.

The balance of trade in goods (BoT-G) in November 2024 was registered at USD -200.12 million. This widened the region’s trade deficit from USD -8.16 million in the same month of 2023.

EXPORTS

The total volume of goods exported by the region in November 2024 was 78.85 million kilograms, lower by 24.9 percent compared with the 104.93 million kilograms of exports in November 2023.

Copper and articles thereof commodity group dominated the export market in November 2024 at USD 125.74 million. This accounted for more than two-thirds (68.0%) of the total value of exports during the month in review.  Ores, slag and ash commodity group which was valued at USD 38.96 million comprised over one-fifth (21.1%), while the commodity group of animal, vegetable, or microbial fats and oils and their cleavage products; prepared edible fats; animal or vegetable waxes came next with USD 17.34 million or 9.4 percent of the region’s total exports in November 2024. Fertilisers commodity group valued at USD 1.99 million pooled in 1.1 percent; while other commodity groups worth USD 0.99 million shared 0.5 percent to the region’s total export in November 2024 (Table 2).

The People’s Republic of China was the main export market with USD 82.37 million worth of exports (44.5%) in November 2024.  Completing the top five (5) export destinations were Vietnam with USD 43.36 million (23.4%); Indonesia with USD 30.23 million (16.3%); Thailand with USD 22.04 million (11.9%); and Malaysia with USD 4.08 million (2.2%) (Table 3).

IMPORTS

The total volume of goods imported into the region in November 2024 was 188.42 million kilograms, lower by 18.3 percent than the 230.64 million kilograms in November 2023.

The commodity group of ores, slag and ash valued at USD 355.15 million comprised the bulk (92.2%) of the total value of imports in November 2024. This was followed by mineral fuels, mineral oils and products of their distillation; bituminous substances; mineral waxes commodity group worth USD 14.88 million or 3.9 percent of the regions's total value of imports in November 2024.  Cereals commodity group worth USD 11.03 million and fertilisers commodity group worth USD 1.29 million, comprised 2.9 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively, of the region's total value of imports during the month in review. Other commodity groups contributed USD 2.79 million or less than one percent of the region’s total imports in November 2024 (Table 4).
 

The major import supplier in November 2024 was Australia with USD 148.59 million or 38.6 percent of the total value of imports.  The rest of the top five (5) import suppliers during the month were Peru with USD 79.25 million (20.6%); Chile with USD 45.30 million (11.8%); Brazil with USD 44.74 million (11.6%); and Papua New Guinea with USD 36.41 million (9.5%) (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 2022 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