Exporting to UN is big business

MANILA, Philippines - Few Filipino exporters know it yet, but exporting to the United Nations is big business. The combined purchases of all the agencies under its wings were put at $14 billion last year.

The logistics and transportation section based in New York alone bought $3.1 billion worth of goods and services last year, revealed its chief, Toshio Mikami, in a forum on doing business with the UN with Filipino exporters held at the Philippine Trade Training Center in Pasay City recently.

Among the big-ticket items the global organization buys are electronic products, pharmaceuticals and food.

The UN agencies that make big purchases include the World Food Program, the United Nations Development Program, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the UNICEF and the World Health Organization.

Unfortunately for Filipino exporters, only a handful of them have been registered as qualified vendors in the list of suppliers the UN keeps. Only three Filipino companies were in the active list of vendors, said Ava Antorela, a Filipina from Lipa City in Batangas who works under Mikami.

The last time a Filipino company made a sale with the UN was in 2007 after its logistics group came to Manila to invite Filipino companies to try exporting to them. The value of the sourced goods and services amounted to $40,000.

Philippine export to the UN was zero from 2008 until last year.

The UN purchasing officials said that the agency’s policy is to give preference to suppliers from developing countries and transition economies for as long as the suppliers meet the strict quality standards the UN adheres to. The Philippines falls under the transition economies category.