The Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute (IEICI), in cooperation with the Israel Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ICCP), and support from the Department of Agriculture (DA), brought Israel’s leading agricultural companies with expertise in water management, irrigation, dairy and post-harvest for the Israel Agro-Business Delegation on January 30-31, 2019 at the Shangri-La Hotel in Taguig.
The event aimed to address issues in the industry and explore possible business opportunities for bilateral cooperation.
“The best thing we can offer you is governance that is transparent, we are proud to tell you that we are moving towards reform,” Agriculture Secretary Manny F. Piñol said.
“I hope this opens for new horizons between our Israeli friends. It is not just a business relationship but a special relationship started over a century ago,” Piñol said.
In his presentation, Piñol said the country will be needing technology and advice on areas of improving solar-power irrigation system, drone technology for crop protection, dairy farming, aquaculture and fish farming, and greenhouse technology.
He said lack of post-harvest facilities and farmers’ dependence on climatic conditions and traditional farming are some of the problems that have hindered the Philippine.
He added that the advancement of Israel technologies has a lot to offer in the development of the current programs of DA such as moving into fertigation, geotagging and maintaining an information database, and the sorghum development program.
“Other areas of investment are abaca (tissue culture, nursery entrepreneurship), coconut (village level processing facility), mango (thickening the peel to long stand howling), seaweeds, vannamei shrimp production, processed meat, cacao and coffee,” Piñol said.
According to Israel Ambassador to the Philippines Rafael Harpaz, Israeli companies are already successfully operating in the Filipino market and he hope that the current Road Show will increase their presence.
“Let’s bridge some gaps and see how we can work out there,” Harpaz added. ### (Kristel Merle/DA-AFID)
