Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

Potentials abound for not only the continuous increase of food imports from the Philippines but also on the improvement of foreign direct investments in food production in the Philippines for the UAE and the rest of the world.

These were from Philippine Ambassador to the UAE Alfonso Ferdinand Ver and Federation of UAE Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) Secretary General Humaid Mohamed Ben Salem at the “Outbound Business Matching Mission” (OBMM) between 14 Philippine food exporters and UAE-based distributors and sellers, arranged by the Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)-Philippine Trade and Investment Centre (Dubai) and the DTI-Export Marketing Bureau (DTI-EMB), on Thursday.

FCCI encourages private sector activity across the seven emirates and facilitates functions related to the country’s economic development. It offers services that include research studies and industrial development programmes.  

Alongside local government units, the 14 Philippine food exporters, which, from February 11 to 14, caravaned through Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam in Saudi Arabia, are participants at the February 19 to 23 “Gulfood.”

A review of the profile had revealed that majority of the 14 – even the personalised care exporters – have been manufacturing plant-based products, predominantly from coconut.

Interviewed, DTI-EMB Director Bianca Pearl Sykimte said: “We had a call for participation. We presented to them the trends in the UAE and the entire GCC, based on feedback from the PTIC. I have been coming over in the past two years. I have seen in the shelves how big the plant-based and alternative food have been doing in the market. The presence here of plant-based food manufacturers from the Philippines is indicative of how we are responsive to the needs and demands of the region. It means that our capabilities and our products are responsive to the needs of the market.”

On the potentials, a factor of which still involves $178.73 million-worth of unrealised food, and agri-related and personal care products, Ver, encouraged the 14 Philippine food exporters to take advantage more of the fact that the UAE has more strongly positioned itself as the hub for international gatherings.

He mentioned the just-concluded World Governments Summit in Dubai, the February 2024 World Trade Organisation 13th Ministerial Committee in Abu Dhabi, and also a recent United Nations Education, Scientific, Cultural Organisation conference “attended by representatives from the Philippines’ Department of Education.”

Ver and Salem cited the enduring “people-to-people relations dating even beyond 50 years; the frequent visits of government and private sector-led parties that lead to the furtherance of talks on particular fields of interest and the signing of memoranda for partnerships and agreements such as the November 2023 UAE high-level public-private sector delegation to the Philippines led by Minister of State Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh, Minister of State for Foreign Trade Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, and FCCI Vice Chairman/Sharjah Chamber of Industry and Commerce Chairman Abdulla Sultan Al Owais.

Ver was hopeful that the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between the Philippines and the UAE were signed “this year.”

Sykimte said: “The CEPA would reduce the tariffs to most, if not all of our products. That would increase the competitiveness of our products because this would lessen the cost of importing products from the Philippines.”

On the margins, Salem said such visits always have the UAE delegations “impressed” with what the Philippines could offer for global supplies: “It is also going to be a win-win situation when we always emphasise the importance of the supply chain, (the connectivity through infrastructure and logistics),  and; if you are a good player, it would be easier for both parties. We have not even reached half of our potentials.”