Agri-food offers huge potential to boost exports, create jobs

MANILA, Philippines – The agriculture sector, particularly the food processing aspect, has the greatest capacity for job generation and poverty reduction in the Philippines, if its export potential can be developed and the sector incorporated into value chains.

This was the consensus reached by stakeholders in both the business and labor sectors who participated in a recent workshop on identifying the industry that can exert the strongest positive influence on employment if it could be strengthened and included in local and global value chains.

Stakeholders said since the business outsourcing sector is thriving and manufacturing is already the country’s export leader, with electronics leading the way, it would be better to consider other sectors with an equally high employment multiplier effect, such as agriculture.

The agri-food business has an immense but undeveloped capacity to become a key player in value chains. If this potential is tapped, it “could help farmers become more productive, more processing facilities would be put up, and (it) could help address national concerns on food and environmental security.”

The group also listed key issues that pull down the industry, including supply chain and logistics problems, lack of financing, technology constraints, insufficient investments, structural issues, and inadequate research and development.

They proposed various solutions to these growth barriers, among which are to revisit existing global supply chain studies, conduct skills mapping, coordinate with workers’ groups, address farmers’ concerns, organize farm workers, and build partnerships among enterprises.

The group also batted for the involvement of local government units, improvement of food quality and standards, and identification of areas of convergence for agribusiness promotion and development.

In addition, efforts to develop the upstream and downstream industry linkages of the agri-food sector should be complemented by skills enhancement aimed at increasing workers’ productivity, growth, and competitiveness.

Among the specific areas where skills can be sharpened are those related to Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point certification, good manufacturing practices, and food safety practices.

Further skills upgrades are also required for food processing technicians and workers, while there should be more skills training on packaging and labeling “so that those from the poor, marginalized, and informal sectors could be easily integrated into the agro-industrial activities through gainful and productive employment in the food processing sector.”

Suggestions were also made to provide training to low-skilled and informal workers as well as former overseas Filipino workers on future skills.

As for food processing companies, additional training is needed on labor law compliance, and assistance to those in the informal sector to upscale their business activities would also help.

On skills mapping, one recommendation is to refer to the existing human resource developing (HRD) roadmaps “to address industry requirements and harmonize all HRD plans of relevant government agencies.” – Philexports