With renewed vigor and strategy, the Department of Agriculture (DA) will strongly partner with the private sector and organized farmers’ and fishers’ groups to further increase the country’s exports of farm and fishery products, with emphasis on diversified and expanded value chain from farms and fishponds to processing.
“We will push for more exports of farm and fishery products to propel the agri-industrialization of the Philippine countryside,” said Agriculture Secretary William Dar, during a meeting of the Export Development Council (EDC) on February 6, 2020, at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) central office in Makati.
“We need to have a systematic and long-term strategy to develop and promote exports of both raw and processed agricultural and fishery products,” Secretary Dar said, as export promotion is among the eight paradigms under the DA’s “new thinking for agriculture.”
EDC chair and DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said it was the first time in recent years that a DA chief attended an EDC meeting. The EDC is the export promotion arm of the DTI mandated to institutionalize the national export drive that will enable the country’s products to compete globally.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) show that top Philippine agriculture exports reached $5.875 billion from January to November 2019, with bananas accounting for 30 percent at $1.77 billion.
Coconut oil exports came in second, at $837.6 million (M) during the 11-month period, followed by processed food and beverages ($726.6M), pineapple ($545M), tuna ($390M), processed tropical fruits ($267M), desiccated coconut ($227.7M), seaweeds and carrageenan ($221.8M), fresh and preserved fish ($214M), and unmanufactured tobacco ($141M).
Secretary Dar, however, challenged the country’s exporters to diversify their products, to include emerging export winners like fresh and processed tropical fruits, natural rubber, and other coconut products like coconut water and coco sugar, to name a few.
“With the DA’s new thinking for Philippine agriculture, we can do much better if we bring our resources together. The way forward really is for the government to strongly partner with the private sector,” he added.
He then instructed concerned DA agencies—specifically the Bureau of Plant Industry (DA-BPI), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR), Philippine Coconut Authority (DA-PCA), and High-Value Crops Development Program—to elevate their game in partnering with big agribusiness firms, small and medium enterprises, and organized farmers’ and fishers’ to develop more innovative and competitive agri-fishery export products.
During the EDC meeting, Dar emphasized the need for aggressive and sustained export promotion as he urged the private sector to help small farmers and fisherfolk through the “big brother-small brother” approach.
“Exports of agri products should not depend on surplus production to supply the international market. We need to have the economies of scale on-farm production that will give us sustained quantity and quality of export products,” Dar said.
PSA figures show that farm and fishery products accounted for 9.1 percent of the country’s total exports, worth $64.583 billion from January to November 2019. Meanwhile, electronic products remained as the country’s top foreign exchange earner with exports totaling $36.563 billion. ### (Rita dela Cruz, DA Communications Group)
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Reference:
Noel Ocampo Reyes
DA Spokesperson and Asst Sec
for Communications and Media Affairs
CP: 09204889686 or 09566694611
Phone: 89298183
