DTI targetting Iran as priority halal market

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has included Iran as among its priority export destination for halal products and services as it lined up several outbound business matching missions this year to promote the country’s exports.

DTI Undersecretary for Trade Promotions Group Abdulgani M. Macatoman said that aside from Iran, DTI is also targeting the Gulf Cooperation Council states, Turkey, Egypt, China and Iran for halal products and services. DTI is also eyeing the neighboring countries in ASEAN for halal products and services.

Macatoman said they will mount outbound missions to both traditional and non-traditional markets. For Europe, Canada, and East Asia, they are targeting for creative services and green business for Europe and East Asia.

For lifestyle products, DTI is looking at ASEAN, East Asia, and Europe. For food, the target markets are East Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, USA, and the Middle East. For the fast-moving goods, these are Russia, Mexico and Africa.

These aggressive marketing promotion efforts will be conducted through the DTI Export Marketing Bureau, Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), Foreign Trade Service Corps (FTSC), and various collaborators from other DTI units and the private sector.

“Philippine exporters are seen to gain more opportunities in 2020 on the back of strong support and commitment from both the government and the private sectors,” Macatoman said in a statement.

The country’s exports of goods and services grew by 5.1 percent year-on-year (YOY) to $25.0 billion in the 3rd quarter of 2019 based on the Balance of Payment data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The Q3 export growth performance was bolstered by an 8.6 percent YOY increase in services exports, with a value of $11.1 billion for the quarter. It was also backed by the 2.4 percent YOY increase in the goods exports valued at $13.9 billion.

Goods and services’ exports climbed 3.7 percent to $70.4 billion spanning from January to September 2019. Services exports rose by 7.7 percent year to date to $30.6 billion driven by a double-digit increase in exports of travel services due to bigger international tourist arrivals. Aside from travel services, Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) also contributed to the services exports’ good showing.

On the other hand, exports of electronics products, bananas, and forestry and mineral products contributed to the moderate increase in the exports of goods.