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The Philippines is a regional biotechnology leader and the first country in the world to approve Golden Rice for commercial propagation. The Bt Eggplant biosafety permit was signed on October 17, 2022, allowing commercial propagation. Planting of Golden Rice has started since its approval in 2021, while Bt corn acceptance has grown with more than 600,000 hectares planted in 2021.

The New Zealand Productivity Commission submitted a report to the Government of New Zealand recommending that a review should be done on regulation of genetic modification to ensure it is fit for purpose and supports domestic innovation. Other than that, there have been no recent significant official changes to the genetically engineered (GE) policies established by the New Zealand government.

The Australian federal government is supportive of biotechnology and has committed considerable long-term funding to research and development. The Australian Productivity Commission recently completed an inquiry into the regulatory burden on farm businesses focusing on regulations that have a material impact on the competitiveness and productivity of Australian agriculture, including the impact of regulations for genetically engineered (GE) products.

The outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) has significantly disrupted Indonesia’s fresh milk production, which dropped 35 percent compared with the previous years’ production. The decline in domestic fresh milk production has been offset by a significant increase in imported whole milk powder. A rebound of the food service sector industry is expected to support a modest increase in the trade of dairy ingredients in 2022 and 2023.

Japan confronted its second year of the COVID-19 pandemic with continued disruptions to the Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional food service industry. In 2021, total sales from the hotel, restaurant, and institutional food service industry totaled $231 billion (JP¥24,621 billion), a decrease of nearly four percent from 2020.

The outlook for the 2022/23 apple season in New Zealand is much more optimistic with the opening of international borders following COVID-19 restrictions. While the last two apple harvests were severely impacted by the lack of labor, the return of overseas workers under the Recognized Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme is expected to help allow a recovery in production, with the forecast up 12 percent from the previous year’s estimated crop.

Australia is a prosperous and industrialized nation with a stable economy. Underpinning Australia's strong economy is its open and transparent trade and investment environment, and trade and economic links with emerging economies, particularly in Asia. The U.S. - Australia Free Trade Agreement provides some advantages for U.S. products, which are well regarded as high quality and good value. The United States accounted for US$1.6 billion or nine percent of Australia’s total food and agriculture related imports in 2021.

The implementation of Malaysia’s B20 mandate has been officially postponed until the end of 2022. However, it will be difficult for the Government of Malaysia (GoM) to implement the B20 within the current deadline and Post expects the delays to continue into 2023.

In 2021, U.S. seafood exports to Hong Kong recovered 31 percent year-on-year to $180 million, and taking over a significant share in niche market segments such as lobsters, eels, oysters, and other frozen mollusks products. Hong Kong has a vast seafood market with an import value of $4 billion in 2021, recovering 20 percent despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

On November 4, 2022, the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT) announced the results of the 2022 U.S. orange tariff rate quota (TRQ) allocations. Korea switched to a new license allocation system this year, replacing the import rights auction process used in prior years. A key piece of the new allocation system is that 80 percent of the total TRQ is reserved for importers with historical import volumes, while the remaining 20 percent is reserved for new importers.

Japan’s Ministry of the Environment opened public comment period on proposed revisions of the Basic Policy of the Green Procurement Act. One proposed change includes greater emphasis in government procurement decisions on the greenhouse gas emission value of goods and services. Comments must be submitted in Japanese by December 6, 2022.

On March 30, 2022, Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency (CAA) released guidelines, which provides examples of an improper use of “No Food Additive Used”. The present report contains a provisional translation of the guidelines.