US funnels $34 million into Philippines ube development

MANILA, Philippines —  The Philippines has secured $34.1 million in funding from the United States to boost the country’s ube industry, as the popularity of the purple yam continues to grow in global markets.

The US Department of Agriculture (DA) awarded the development fund through its Food for Progress Program, aimed at expanding the Philippines’ ube value chain, according to US Ambassador Lee Lipton.

Washington-based non-profit organization TechnoServe was tapped to implement the ube development project that will support 12,500 Filipino ube farmers over the next five years.

Lipton said that the program is funded from the sale of about 40,000 metric tons (MT) of US soybean meal.

The Food for Progress Program is funded by revenues generated from the sale of US agricultural commodities.

“This award will further strengthen the US-Philippines diplomatic and economic partnership, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year,” Lipton said.

The Philippines was earlier named as one of seven global priority countries for the USDA’s Food for Progress initiative.

An earlier report by the USDA noted that the Philippines lacks access to quality planting materials, while farm production remains fragmented to smallholder farmers operating in isolation.

Likewise, post-harvest facilities remain inadequate, causing significant losses in output due to the lack of sorting, curing and drying infrastructure.

The government has been pushing to expand the country’s ube production to capitalize on its growing popularity in the global market.

The Department of Agriculture said earlier that it was looking to expand the country’s ube planting area by at least a thousand hectares, noting that this could double local output.

The country produced around 5,658 MT of ube in the first half of 2025, up from the 4,838 MT a year earlier, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.