“Presently there are just two products for export that have reached the $1B and above category, banana and coconut oil. There are products now that are below $500M category and we want to elevate them so that they can go to the next level,” Dar said in a bilateral meeting with the US-ASEAN Business Council (USABC) on October 15, 2019 in Brunei Darussalam.

The Philippine delegation, led by Agriculture Secretary Dar, met with the US-ASEAN Business Council to discuss possible areas and priorities for collaboration.

USABC is an advocacy group that aims to foster economic growth and trade ties between the United States and ASEAN member-states. It is the only US-based organization stipulated in the ASEAN charter.

USABC Senior Vice President for Policy Marc Mealy, along with the other official of the companies presented specific areas and priorities particularly in going forward where both groups might be able to collaborate for future endeavor.

On the aspect of trade dimension, Dar reiterated the need for the Philippines to have a unified export development study that will enable to make the agriculture sector more competitive.

“We are now purposely looking at having a common export development study with the Department of Trade and Industry. We need to have a common approach so that we can elevate these products with export potentials. We also need to see to it that there are enough hectarages that can produce volume and quality of export products be it raw or processed,” Dar said. ### (Rita dela Cruz, DA Communications Group)