Tuesday, March 04, 2008 Neda: Agri-business a promising sector By Joy Romares-Sevilla
ASIDE from the construction industry, which is seen by business leaders to boom, agribusiness sector, especially investing in the high value commercial crops, is also one of the promising sectors this year.
Nicasio Angelo Agustin, regional director of the National Economic Development Authority (Neda) Southern Mindanao and vice chairperson of the Regional Development Council (RDC) Southern Mindanao, told Sun.Star Davao that the Davao region continues to possess a large human resource that could support agribusiness ventures.
"The national government's strategy of identifying Mindanao as a super region for agribusiness and the advantages of the island in agriculture, fishery, and forestry, make agribusiness a sector worth investing this year," Agustin said.
He added the region should also take advantage of government's thrust to promote entrepreneurship.
"It is important that farmers aim for higher value products, while crop production and handicraft-making are the staple ventures in the rural areas," Agustin said.
Agustin said the popularity of banana chips in the world market strengthens this strategy. He further said the United States Department of Agriculture (US-DA) has assured the Philippines that it would speed up the process of pest risk analysis for Philippine banana.
"This is a move that is expected to boost the country's export earnings," Agustin claimed, adding that this can also send a positive signal to small farmers to diversifying into high value crop production.
He further said the government is opening up more markets for bananas and other high value commercial crops (HVCCs) that can contribute to the country's agro-fishery export earnings.
"The opening up of new markets is through selling and trade missions in major markets like China and Japan and emerging markets in Europe and Asia," Agustin said.
He also advised that coconut farmers should strive beyond copra production, coconut, coco coir, briquettes, and charcoal.
"They could diversify to the production of coconut by-products that can be used as natural health supplement and as cosmetics such as soaps, massage ointments, and aromatherapy oils," he concluded.
