DTI to craft a food manufacturing sourcebook

CEBU, Philippines - To help address the needs of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises dealing with food services, the Department of Trade and Industry –Cebu Province is conducting a survey on local sources of goods, services and facilities.

DTI Cebu overall in-charge Elias Tecson said that they see this as an important move to continue supporting the growth and development of MSME players in the food manufacturing industry.

“It aims to overcome one of the handicaps faced by MSMEs which is the lack of access to information on available technology, sources of equipment, raw materials, training programs and market opportunities, and others.”

This lack of information prevents many MSMEs from surviving and expanding said Tecson.

A Sourcebook on Food Manufacturing for the Visayas would be produced after all the results from the regions in Visayas would be collated and consolidated.

The Sourcebook would contain the different categories of suppliers per region like products such as beverages, coffee, tea, cocoa, confectioneries, sugar flavors, sweeteners, flour, starch, cereals, noodles, pasta wrappers, fresh and processed products, seasonings, oils, flavors, additives, colors and gelatins.

Equipment appliances and the tools used for the industry would also be included as well as the packaging materials.

Service information would also be entered in the sourcebook like culinary schools, food distributors and consolidators, traders, food importers, re-packers, toll re-packers, testing laboratories and training programs they could avail of.

The business organization and government services would also be found in the sourcebook with information on food and food related trade associations, food and food related trade fairs and other government services.

Tecson said that they are encouraging the companies in Cebu dealing with food which can not be reached by the survey to visit DTI-Cebu Provincial Office and fill out the National MSME Database Profile Form for their company to be included in the sourcebook.

For more information, DTI-CEBU could be reached at 412-1863 or 253-2631 and look for Ms. Mila de los Reyes.— AJ de la Torre