In 2007, the Philippines’s total food export was worth $1.48 billion, up by 13 percent from the previous year. Of this, processed goods made up almost 50 percent, or $735.03 million, and fresh foods accounted for the remaining 50 percent, or $741.65 million.

While the value of processed food exports has grown significantly by 26 percent as compared with its 2006 value of $583.09 million, a closer examination shows that most of the products were limited to fruits and crops such as preserved pineapples, dried mangoes, mango puree and mango juice.

The Philippines has the potential to expand the range, quality and quantity of its food exports.

For instance, our technical parameters in the hog and broiler industries are on a par with other Asean countries that are exporting pork and poultry. In terms of pork production, our growers have the same feed-conversion ratios, pig sold per sow per year and average farrowing rate as with hog growers in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

But what makes our pork at a competitive disadvantage compared with that of our neighbors is the higher cost of production. Costs of fatteners, overhead and medicines in the Philippines are higher by 139 percent compared with Thailand’s. Coupled with a higher cost of transportation and handling (nine times that of Thailand’s) and processing costs (twice those of Thailand’s), this makes the wholesale price of Philippine pork per kilo almost double (42 percent) that of the Thais.

The high logistics cost in the Philippines is due to the lack of infrastructure and underdeveloped supply chains, not only of pork production, but of other agricultural products, as well. This hinders us from effectively making our products competitive in the global market, and capitalizing on our inherent advantage to access markets that are of close proximity to us, particularly the Asian and Asean markets, for fresh, frozen and processed foods.

A recent report presented by the technical panel on agriculture and food of the Congressional Commission on Science, Technology and Engineering highlighted the need for innovative and well-developed supply chains for successful high-value food firms, and a strengthened R&D system for meeting global standards in agriculture—areas where science and technology are critical. These initiatives need increased and sustained investment in infrastructure and manpower.

E-mail: edgardo_angara@hotmail.com Website: www.edangara.com