Missing an opportunity

MILAN – This bustling city is being spruced up for the 2015 World Expo, in which among the countries that won’t be participating is the Philippines.

Our government has sent word that the Philippines will be too busy preparing for Manila’s hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in 2015 and won’t be able to participate in a gathering that would have given Philippine products a major exposure in the European market.

Perhaps some members of the private sector can step in and reserve even a small space. Or they can tie up with our smaller neighbors that can’t afford to maintain a display area for six months, from May to October, for a common Southeast Asian pavilion.

The deadline for confirming participation has lapsed, but Italian Ambassador Massimo Roscigno said a late reservation may still be possible if done soon.

It would be unfortunate if there would be no Philippine presence at the World Expo in a country which hosts one of the largest populations of overseas Filipinos.

Estimates of their numbers here vary wildly, from just over 100,000 to more than 200,000. The figures may be difficult to ascertain accurately because there are Filipinos who have acquired Italian citizenship, either by marriage or by working here long enough and meeting the immigration requirements.

Flying into this city last week from Doha, Qatar, I chatted with one of the early settlers. The woman from Luzon married a childhood sweetheart, became a mother in her teens, and belatedly found out that her husband is a wife beater.

She dumped her husband and set off to become a cleaning woman here.

Today, 25 years later, she is an Italian citizen with all the social safety nets that this brings. She makes 600 euros working three hours a night, at overtime rates, for five days a week, and earns more cleaning homes during weekends.

Obtaining a loan, she bought a house in this city, with amortizations taken from the rent for one of the rooms. With her savings, she has brought to Milan her children, now with families of their own.

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In Milan and Turin I ran into many Filipinos, most of them women who have settled in this country. There are, of course, even more Filipinos per capita in Doha. As in other major airports that employ people from different countries, you realize that Pinoys truly have a unique quality: they stand out at the new, massive Hamad International Airport with their ready smiles and natural TLC in assisting travelers.

Apart from giving the thousands of Pinoys in Italy representation at the Milan Expo, our businessmen need to explore the European market. In my travels I have noted that European supermarkets stock products from Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, and of course China, Japan and South Korea. But only a few items, usually dried mangoes, are from the Philippines.

Our neighbors sell to Europe items ranging from rice to noodles and canned coconut cream and mangosteen. We produce the same stuff so why can’t we sell to the Europeans?

In Turin, where I could hear Tagalog spoken in the streets, I didn’t see a single product made in the Philippines in the ordinary supermarkets.

We probably won’t be able to sell a lot of instant noodles in the land of pasta, sold here in a wondrous array of shapes, flavors and colors. Our rice, including the best varieties, may also not suit the taste buds of those who grew up on Arborio used for risotto.

But we can try selling other products such as tropical fruits. Mangoes, bananas, avocados – Europeans would love them. We can even try selling them our sea salt, or Bohol’s smoky asin tibuok: build a story around the product and it should approach the astronomical prices fetched by Himalayan pink salt and France’s fleur de sel.

Sold along with gourmet salt packs in Milan and Hamad International are specialty sugars: muscovado and what looks like turbinado sugar, priced about 20 times higher than in Manila. We can sell them our coco sugar and panocha.

For years we couldn’t compete with China in producing dirt-cheap goods. Now that prosperity is pushing up labor rates and other costs of production in China, that business is again bypassing us and is instead going to countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia and Sri Lanka.

Since we can’t compete in the low-end market, we can follow the lead of several small countries and create higher-value products.

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We may even try developing our own defense industry, now that we realize the need for minimum credible external defense. The Indians are making their own navy ships. We’re not lacking in brains, ingenuity and resources. We should wean ourselves from dependence on other countries, produce our own defense and security equipment and consider selling to others.

While pondering the possibilities in this area, we can set less ambitious goals and develop top quality consumer goods. Our furniture industry, which for some time suffered from cheap knockoffs made in China, is doing this. One of the world’s top furniture designers, Kenneth Cobonpue, is a Cebuano.

Aiming for the luxury market, or specialized niche markets by selling top-quality goods and services is a strategy pursued by several advanced economies with a highly educated (and highly paid) workforce.

Studies undertaken during financial meltdowns in recent years have shown that high-end products tend to be impervious to global economic downturns.

Even economies with globally competitive enterprises are not immune to global financial woes, of course. Italy, emerging from its longest post-war recession, is pinning its hopes for recovery on its new prime minister (and youngest ever at 39), Matteo Renzi, with retailers and entrepreneurs pushing him to fast-track reforms.

During my stay in Turin, airport workers in the city and taxi drivers in Milan went on strike.

The Milan Expo could give the Italian economy a shot in the arm, showcasing to the world its industrial prowess, high fashion and fine foods. Turin, for example, is home to Alfa Romeo and Lancia, and chocolate makers such as  Ferrero Rocher (also producer of Nutella) and Venchi.

Many of Italy’s fine foods deserve the hefty price tags. Among these are balsamic vinegars, cured meats, wines, wood-roasted coffee, and the sweet chocolate and hazelnut paste called Gianduja that was concocted in Turin in the 18th century. The Torino Gianduja gelato is divine.

We also have our local line of delectable ice cream in unique tropical flavors. These we can present at the Milan Expo, alongside world-class furniture and other quality products that we can say are proudly made in the Philippines.