MINDANAO-BASED agribusiness firm, Southern Agro Export (Sagrex) Corporation, is eyeing for buyers from Indonesia following the launch of the Davao City-General Santos City-Bitung, Indonesia Roll-on Roll-off (Roro) Asean sea trade route last Sunday, April 30.
Sagrex Corporation president and chief executive officer Ferdinand Marañon told SunStar Davao in an interview that the shipping route is a welcome development.
He said it will give Davao exporters the chance to export to Bitung, Manado, and other Northern provinces in Indonesia.
“I will be looking for buyers of Sagrex insulation in packaging materials in that part of Indonesia,” she said.
He added that they are not exporting any goods yet in Indonesia as their market remained to be in United States of America (USA), Taiwan, Korea, Saudi Arabia and Australia, among others.
Marañon is also the president of Philippine Exporters Confederation-Davao.
Sagrex Corporation processes indigenous banana varieties for export to the Middle East, Europe and the US markets.
Last Sunday, April 30, President Rodrigo Duterte and Indonesian President Joko Widodo led the launching of the new shipping route at the Kudos Port in Sasa, Davao City.
The route paves way for a faster shipping time and cheaper shipping costs. The travel time is now down to only one and a half days to two days as compared to three to five weeks travel time before. The shipment cost of the route is now at P34,713 per twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) compared with P109,098 per TEU for the Davao-Manila-Jakarta-Bitung route.
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With the opening of new ports and exploring possible routes, we will stimulate trade, tourism, other areas of development among Asean member states. This will significantly reduce the shipping time of the transported goods to the usual five weeks to just two to three days and lower the cost of transportation, drive competition, attract new players, and increase demand for jobs,” President Duterte said.
He added that the new route will not only strengthen intra-regional maritime connectivity among Asean members, it will also introduce new opportunities for trade expansions for areas located in the outer regions.
Widodo, for his part said, the newly-launched sea route will enable trade development in areas beyond its present center of trade relations which is at Java and Jakarta, Indonesia.
In a report, the Roro’s inaugural voyage only carried five TEUs and 50 TEU container vans or only one percent of the total cargo load.