Our food industry must be world class

For a country whose people are still largely dependent on agriculture, we have simply not given this sector the attention it deserves. Well, at least until now. I was just reading a recent speech of Agriculture Secretary Cito Lorenzo before the Makati Business Club and I get the impression that at long last, steps have been taken and initial progress has been made towards a more globally competitive Philippine agriculture sector.

It is of course, work in progress. No wonder this problem with the chicken supply this holiday season happened. Some of the processing facilities of the poultry industry may be world class but the industry is being managed in a topsy turvy Third World fashion. Hopefully, even that is starting to change for the better.

Secretary Lorenzo assures that "we are building globally competitive agricultural products." Cito understands that "this step is of utmost importance because no amount of protection will serve us if our products remain inferior to their foreign counterparts." That’s right, Cito. I just hope everyone involved in the food industry realizes this too.

I wonder, though. But Cito got it right. "Global competitiveness requires no less than a commitment to benchmark against the best in the world on every link of the supply chain: from the seed – meaning from research, tissue culture, planting, irrigation, growing, harvesting, and packing to the shelf – meaning the logistics network that brings our products to the market, such as cold storage, quality control, shipping, and delivery to retailers in our domestic and export markets."

While government is responsible for basic infrastructure like farm to market roads and even in the matter of bringing down domestic shipping costs, the private sector’s role is quite clear. They have to focus not only on cost efficiency, but also on other competitiveness attributes such as establishing consistent quality, supply reliability, appropriate product innovation, and expedient customer service.

Cito cited the coffee industry project of the Department of Agriculture and the Makati Business Club as an example. The project involves helping to bring the local coffee industry back to life by way of setting world class quality standards for our coffee growers, millers, and roasters and by helping them meet those standards.

We used to be a big coffee producer but is now a big importer. My brother-in-law, Dr. Art Ludan, who was interested in exporting local coffee beans to a processor in Seattle for blending with other world class varieties and eventual re-export to the Philippines all but gave up. The first problem was lack of consistency in the quality of Philippine beans in his trial shipment. The other problem was the inability of his Philippine supplier to live up to his price quotation. The moment the local price moved up, the supposedly fixed price commitment was broken.

With regard to supply reliability, Cito cited efforts to integrate the P200-billion swine sector by bringing together hog raisers with slaughterhouse operators, meat processors, and wholesalers/retailers. I guess it is noteworthy to also cite here the effort being made by Loida Nicolas Lewis to set up world class meat processing facilities in Bicol. Her investments are being made in a region that badly needs it too.

The Swine Board, Cito reports, is in the process of completing Project 10-10, an import substitution strategy for increasing production by 10 percent in each of 10 swine production clusters scattered throughout Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Such an increase in production will meet the supply requirements of our people, given that pork consumption is growing by 4.7 percent per year, and avert further pork importation, which is growing at 15 percent annually.

The most exciting part of Cito’s report has to do with important technological interventions now being made to improve farm productivity and incomes. Cito has initiated efforts to help the local agri sector keep in step with global trends that can enhance the value of products – such as biotechnology, organics, and packaging innovations.

For instance, in hybrid rice, they found a solution to a sector that has long lagged behind other rice producing countries in Asia like Thailand and Vietnam in terms of production and efficiency. They are now working with scientists and entrepreneurs who brought the technology from China, enrolled model farmers who committed to imbibe the discipline involved in hybrid rice farming, unblocked the flow of credit in the countryside through Quedancor, and subsidized the distribution of hybrid seeds.

Today, Cito reports, "we are 94-percent sufficient in rice, and expected to reach 97-percent sufficiency next year." It is also exciting to learn that "in a country where the average yield is at 80-90 cavans per hectare, a farmer from Rizal, Occidental Mindoro recently achieved a world-record harvest of 292 cavans per hectare using the SL8 hybrid rice variety.

It is not only in rice that exciting breakthroughs are being made. GET EXCEL Tilapia, a genetically-enhanced tilapia variety, is helping boost farmers’ income, growing faster than previous varieties, and allowing four harvests in one year (instead of three, previously). And as it sells for less than popular galunggong, tilapia has become the new fish for the masses.

Cito reports that they have fast-tracked the establishment of 12 GET EXCEL tilapia hatcheries in 12 separate regions, in only six months, or half the time. This effort offers immediate gains to both our fisherfolk and consumers.

GMO corn, on the other hand, Cito assures, shows great promise. The commercialization of Bt corn here in the Philippine was the result of a five-year process that was scientific, transparent, and inclusive of all concerned sectors. By way of its pest-resistant gene, it gives the farmer an option to decisively deal with the Asiatic corn borer, a destructive worm that takes away as much as 40 percent of the corn farmer’s earnings, using less chemicals such as expensive and hazardous pesticides.

The Agriculture chief asserts that "Bt corn represents a real solution for the millions of Filipino corn farmers suffering from low productivity and fierce competition from other corn producing countries. It can augment local corn production, and eliminate the need to import nearly one million metric tons of corn and feed substitutes each year to support the rapidly growing local livestock and poultry industries."

Best of all, the Agriculture Secretary is showing some leadership in getting the agri sector more globally competitive, something the Trade and Industry department should also be doing for the industry sector. "We are,"Secretary Lorenzo said, "also on the lookout for technologies and systems to support our export winners and those with strong export potential such as lettuce, cauliflower, tomatoes, saba, processed vegetables, chicken, pork, and bangus (for fishbait).

Cito correctly observed that "amidst rapid globalization, success in grappling with freer trade conditions demands that we take on a comprehensive approach – simultaneously enhancing private sector leadership to augment government’s scarce resources and other limitations producing globally competitive products through constant benchmarking across the supply chain tapping into commercially viable technologies to boost production and incomes and ensuring that our products are granted access to foreign markets."

Instead of constantly bellyaching about globalization’s adverse impact, Cito has taken a more positive and proactive stance. But he warns that it is not going to be easy. "In our bid to attain global competitiveness, we must be willing to sacrifice traditional business interests and learn the art of focusing our resources and efforts towards our distinctive competencies."

He concludes that in order "to fulfill agriculture’s potential, to even have a chance of competing globally, we need a pro-active, results-oriented attitude, propelled by a strong sense of urgency and action." Last week’s chicken shortage fiasco shows how much ground we still have to cover.

Escargot

This one’s from Dr. Ernie E.

Rosey and Nina were dining at a French restaurant. Rosey asked Nina, "What are the snails like here?"

Without missing a beat, Nina replied, "They’re disguised as waiters."

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]