Philippines taps Israel expertise for development of dairy sector

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines and Israel are strengthening their agricultural ties as they commit to work together to improve the country’s dairy industry.

During the Philippine-Israel Dairy Business forum yesterday, Agriculture Secretary William Dar and Israel Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss signed a joint declaration for the dairy industry.

“The Philippine government is eager to learn from Israel’s dairy practices. We want to know more of your dairy technologies. We have watched the progress of the projects between Israel and Vietnam, and we wish to learn as much from you here in the Philippines,” Dar said.

“I trust the joint declaration which we will initiate and sign today is only the first step to continuing relationship of mutual respect and assistance,” he said.

For his part, Fluss expressed Israel’s willingness to help the Philippines.

“We are very happy to continue to strengthen the relations in agriculture between Israel and the Philippines, specifically in the dairy industry,” Fluss said.

He said that through the joint declaration, Israel would be able to have more collaborations with the Philippines to improve the industry through capacity-building and the engagement of the Israel private sector.

“We are looking at two directions: for one side, economic and private sector and on the other hand MASHAV, Israel’s development agency, which is committed to work here in capacity-building and technical assistance program in order to help the development of the dairy sector in the Philippines,” Fluss said.

Israel is known as a global leader in dairy production with its various innovations and strategies such as the use of computerized milking and feeding systems in dairy farming, among others.

“We look forward to continuing to share our knowledge with the Philippines and support the initiatives of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the National Dairy Authority (NDA) for the modernization of the industry,” Fluss said.

The Israeli Ambassador also emphasized that the Philippines has a vibrant agriculture sector which can become competitive.

“If given enough attention, focus and investment, there are a lot of opportunities for longterm yield that will make the industry more competitive, as well as help the livelihood of many Filipinos and even get sufficiency in dairy production,” Fluss said.

“Such improvement can be done through investments in technologies, in R&D and in best practices,” he said.