DA chief to Amcham: Invest in PHL’S agribusiness sector

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) is encouraging the members of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (Amcham) to consider investing in the country’s agribusiness sector to help farmers attain “efficient management and delivery of agriculture and fishery products.”

In a news statement, Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar said there are a lot of opportunities in the agribusiness sector under the new normal that Amcham members could explore.

“With the big potential and opportunity for agribusiness investments, we call on the Amcham members to invest in agriculture, especially in the provision of production, processing, cold chain, marketing, logistics and modern technologies, and agripreneurship,” Dar said during a recent virtual meeting with Amcham officers and members.

Dar said major investments are “urgently needed” in the construction of “cold chain facilities, including attendant logistics to enable food producers to efficiently manage supply and deliver farm and fishery products to the market on a regular basis.”

“The Covid-19 pandemic is currently defining the world as we know it, showing us that it is more than just a health crisis, but also a major concern with socioeconomic dimension to it,” he said.

“But this won’t dampen our spirit. We will aggressively continue to empower our food security frontliners—the farmers and the fishers,” he added.

The DA noted that the US remains as the country’s top source of food and agricultural product imports amounting to $2.8 billion in 2019, about 2.6 times the value of Philippine food and agricultural products exported to the US.

“In particular, we encourage Amcham members and other private sector stakeholders to invest in warehouses and cold storage for agricultural and fishery commodities,” he said.

“We need these facilities particularly during the harvest season, when there are surpluses, and thus buy at lower cost and store them. This is a tolling business that the private sector can take part of. We need not depend on the government alone. We need your involvement,” he added.

Higher budget and investment for Philippine agriculture is one of Dar’s eight paradigms to level up the sector.

The DA noted that the government and the private sector “must provide the necessary budget and investment to grow and develop Philippine agriculture.”

“The increased budget will help unlock the bigger potential contribution of agriculture and agribusiness to the economy, including more employment opportunities,” it added.