Food processors expect lower exports this year

The country’s agricultural food exports may not see better full year gains in both volume and value.

The Philippine Food Processors and Exporters Organization Inc. (PhilFoodex) said agricultural exports may pose lower sales this year due to significant decline in production of some commodities like mangoes.

“It will be lower compared to the average agricultural exports in 2016. There are other industries that only experienced a high spike in heir value,” PhilFoodex president Roberto Amores said on the sidelines of the opening day of the Agrilink 2017.

“Other products which are on a decline in terms of raw materials will not contribute to the same growth of last year,” he said.

PhilFoodex is the leading food industry association in the coun- try composed of micro, small, medium and large scale food manufacturers and exporters.

Although not giving exact figures, Amores is not optimistic that last year’s $5.3 billion in export sales would even be reached this year.

“It’s off season period up to December. I think that will not be reached, we have five months to go, I doubt that it can grow by $3 billion,” he said.

Exports of agricultural products reached $2.4 billion as of end-July, up slightly from $2 billion in 2016.

For instance, mango export volume declined more than 30 percent while value inched up due to the weakening of the peso against the dollar.

“Value is higher due to improved selling price but that cannot compensate with the huge decline in production,” said Amores, who is also the president of the Philippine Mango Exporters Foundation Inc.

Meanwhile, Amores is upbeat about the prospects next year, emphasizing better production.

“I’m very positive that we will be able to recover our lost volume in 2015 and 2016 as outlook for domestic and export demand is positive. At the moment, there are no major typhoons or calamities that hit the major producing areas,” he said.

“We used to produce one million MT, now we are below 600,000 MT. It’s been going down by 15 percent every year. Other countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Mexico are already filling up the demand even with their less premium mangoes,” Amores said.

Production of mango decreased 10 percent to 546,280 MT in second quarter amid incidence of cecid fly in Pangasinan that resulted in decrease in yield and number of bearing trees.