New Zealand to help boost local dairy industry

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Thousands of Filipinos stand to benefit from technical interventions New Zealand committed to provide to boost the local dairy industry.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol on Tuesday said Nathan Guy, New Zealand’s minister of primary industries, assured him of their support to the Philippine dairy industry during a meeting on Monday in Piura, Peru.

In a statement emailed from abroad Tuesday, Piñol said he and Guy had a brief meeting while in Piura for a ministerial meeting on agriculture of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

“It was a cordial meeting, a very promising engagement,” Piñol said in his email to The STAR.

The ongoing meeting in Piura of agriculture officials from APEC member-states is part of the preparations for the transnational economic bloc’s November 2016 summit proper in the Lima, capital city of Peru.

Piñol said Guy had told him they can tap Filipinos engaged in the dairy industry in New Zealand to help compatriots in the Philippines.

Both Piñol and Guy agreed to organize a technical working group to formalize a plan on how to pursue such mutual cooperation venture.