Rice is the main food staple. Filipinos like sweet flavors. Barbecue meats and meat on the bone are popular. The Philippines is the 13 th largest importer of American food and agricultural products and the 7 th largest for processed meats. SPAM continues to be a success story.
Canned meats are popular due to a lack of refrigeration.
Price is a major issue. Many meat products are used in hot dogs with cost being an important issue. US pork exports are frozen and used mainly for manufacturing. The growing popularity of western-styled restaurants in the Philippines offers encouraging potential to increased sales of US pork. Beef consumption overall is expected to increase due to an aggressive expansion of fast food outlets.