Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter
A Philippine Government official who had founded and captained his family-owned 40-year-old food exporting business, said his country has the huge potential of becoming a global food supplier.
Department of Agriculture (DA)-Special Assistant for Export Development Philip C. Young, whose children are now responsible for the Global Food Solutions that exports to 40 countries, gave the assurance to this reporter who had expressed some uncertainty, amidst the political punches hurled at the Marcos Jr. Administration, perceived to be a weakling in resolving, among others, the Philippines’ agricultural woes.
Young was interviewed on Friday. He heads the 21-member delegation for the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)/Philippine Trade Investment Centre (Dubai)-Department of Foreign Affairs (Philippine Embassies and Philippine Consulates General)-DA Feb. 7 to 21 “Outbound Business Matching Mission to the Middle East (Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, UAE) relative to the annual Gulfood in Dubai next week.
“Filipino food products are already there globally. Just imagine the over 12 million overseas Filipinos (OFs) who pitch for us. But we have to do more to become more competitive because export is not only about marketing and pricing,” he said, adding that of equal importance is the supply chain consisting of advanced infrastructure.
“It is a different leadership now,” Young guaranteed, saying that with Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., chosen by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to helm the DA since Nov. 2023, there is no way now for Filipinos, into the agricultural sector and with ambitions of scaling their chances into the international market, would be abandoned.
For one, Laurel was born and raised by enterprising parents who have successfully steered, since 1966, their Frabelle Fishing Corp. into the agricultural and fisheries industries, diversified into shipbuilding and repair, and power generation; have captured international markets by firming up their stakes in the Asia-Pacific Region.
“He knows the concerns. He grew up with their family conglomerate. That is why he also created the Export Development Office so that our government would be able to address the plight of the micro-small-medium enterprises (MSMEs); help them abound,” Young said.
No agenda to duplicate DTI engagements in the area of empowering agri-based MSMEs nationwide by way of multi-faceted trainings-cum-workshops towards export entrepreneurship. Instead, in Nov. 2024, DA and DTI signed a Memorandum of Agreement for partnerships and collaborations to beef up the programmes, also available through the regional and local government units.
Among the beneficiaries of the DTI trainings-cum-workshops is first-time outbound mission participant Gwendelyn Espino, a Physical Therapy graduate who began what would be the family-owned Gwen’s Bakeshop from their hometown of Plaridel in Bulacan Province, after she begun the business as a housewife for 13 years, in Saudi Arabia.
Before the Novel Coronavirus that left her telephone technician husband unemployed, Espino and her children already went home for good. Their business thrived after Espina registered at the DTI which led her to participate in various trainings that included marketing, accounting, good manufacturing practices, and also exposures in local bazaars.
Espina, nervous for her first international business engagement, got the idea to export since in the past five years, she saw the climb of the sales of her invented teeny-weeny pandesal-like pastillas – the largest so far are 100 packs from a vacationing OF in the USA. Her other baked products have also been a sell-out among the OFs in the UAE, Australia, Japan, Canada and Hong Kong.
“They have been buying my products for their families, bosses, colleagues and friends. So why don’t I export it myself,” she said, adding that as she had applied for the possibility last Dec. 2025, a DTI invitation was sent to her for the ongoing Middle East mission a month later.
Fisher Farms chief executive officer Imelda Madarang , in both the private and public sectors of the food industry since 1995, spoke in behalf of the delegation. The former DTI-Regional Operations assistant secretary agreed with Young that Filipino food exporters have huge chances to make it bigger worldwide, based on her experience of giving the Filipino face in all the products she had repeatedly and successfully promoted and marketed at Gulfood: “Dubai is the test market. If you make it here, that’s it.”
Consul General in Dubai and the Northern Emirates Marford Angeles said the yearly participation of food exporters in Gulfood pictures the steady improvement of the Philippines-UAE trade relations.