DTI, DOST to form Cebu’s processed food roadmap

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Trade and Industry-Cebu Provincial Office (DTI-CPO) is moving towards initiating the creation of processed food roadmap in order to help potential producers in the province penetrate both local and international markets.

DTI-CPO director Nelia F. Navarro said in an interview that her office will lead in organizing the processed food players in the One-Town-One-Product (OTOP) level in different municipalities in Cebu and will coordinate with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

   One roadmap is very important, she said, so that all players, including concerned government agencies, will be able to identify the problems, needs and requirements of the industry, and that Cebu will also be prepared for the stiffer competitiveness in the light of ASEAN integration in 2015.

  According to Navarro, one of the obvious concerns that the government will address in the processed food industry in Cebu is the packaging. Good packaging technology strategy will be applied by the players with the help of DTI and DOST.

“Good packaging is what we need. We have good products and are globally competitive. We have just not improved our packaging style,” Navarro said.

Aside from tapping the big processed food producers that have already carved names in the market, like the Profoods International, among others, she  said DTI’s target is the OTOP-level processed food producers such as the “torta” makers in Argao, vegetable producers in Dalaguete, and chicharon producers in Carcar, to name a few.

Navarro said DTI will also coordinate with the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) in the creation of the roadmap  and collaborate the existing program of the chamber in improving the processed food packaging of its member companies.

CCCI has an existing program with AFOS Foundation for Entrepreneurial Development of Germany in the development of organic farming in Cebu.

This particular program of the CCCI will be integrated in the roadmap  so that farmers in different towns will be introduced to the organic farming method and will know the big and growing market potential of organically-produced crops.       

In the municipalities, where producers and potential processed food makers are usually home-based, DTI will intervene in introducing professional operations for these micro-business players, starting with the introduction of good packaging technology.

“In the inclusive growth bid of the government, involving the producers in the community is part of the effective strategy,” Navarro said.

 At present, Navarro said despite Cebu’s diverse availability of good processed food products, which includes the well known dried mangoes, there is no unified roadmap that will serve as the blueprint of the potential processed food industry.

What happens now, she said, is that small processed food producers continue to do their business with traditional packaging and business operation styles.

Navarro said this industry should be supported well as early as now to sustain their potential in the local and international market.

In Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, the packaging adoption is already modernized. The Philippines on the other hand, specifically Cebu, should trail blaze in this aspect, more so that the ASEAN integration poses threat the all industries if not being positioned to prepare for the borderless trade exchanges or free flow of products and services within the region. /JMD (FREEMAN)