Philippines eyes cooperation with Egypt for agricultural products

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines hopes to forge future cooperation pacts with Egypt on the promotion of some of its agricultural products, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.

In a virtual meeting yesterday, Agriculture Secretary William Dar met with Egyptian Ambassador to the Philippines Ahmed Shehabeld to discuss possible market access and investment opportunities between the two countries.

“We are enthusiastic to further open up and hoping that both sides will benefit, and look at every opportunity where we can really open more market access between the two countries,” Dar said.

The DA chief said they were willing to work with Egypt and strengthen their existing bilateral relations.

Dar expressed his interest in future cooperation for the promotion of agricultural products, specifically desiccated coconuts, tuna (prepared or preserved), bananas (fresh or dried), and coconut oil, excluding crude among others.

He also informed the Ambassador that the work plan for the entry of Egyptian citrus has been prepared by the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) through its National Plant Quarantine Division.

He said the documents have been submitted for review by Egyptian authorities.

“Late 2019, a team from the BPI visited Egypt’s production areas and processing and packing houses of specific crops such as citrus and grapes as part of the risk assessment,” he said.

For his part, Shehabeld assured Dar that they were open to work with the DA and would like to explore all aspects involving agriculture.

Apart from cooperation on the promotion of agricultural products, Dar also shared that the DA would also need investment assistance, particularly on food processing and logistics support to the agribusiness corridor in New Clark City.

Last month, the DA said it was allocating P1.15 billion for the implementation of the agribusiness corridors-inclusive agribusiness program (ABC-IAP).

The DA described ABCs as a tool for promoting sustainable agricultural development through value chains, with agricultural clusters along existing infrastructure corridors and establishing transformative multi-sectoral public-private partnerships and providing catalytic financing to attract capital from domestic and international, public and private sources.

The ABCs will house agribusiness and multipurpose facilities that will be key to managing and integrating the food supply chain, as well as introducing innovative agricultural technology to farmers.

“The ABCs are projected to unleash the growth potential of the sector as DA amplifies inter-agency collaboration to promote and attract location-focused public and private investments interconnecting access to raw materials, market, technology, infrastructure and utilities, the DA said earlier.

Under the ABC-IAP, the DA is targeting to increase the number of farmers and fisherfolk enterprises with value-adding products that are integrated in a particular agri-industry sub-sector.

It also aims to support scalable agri-business enterprises and establish sustainable business relationships among chain players through the agri-industrial facilities.