THE government should zero in on the development and promotion of Philippine export products to be able to compete with other countries in the global arena, according to the Philippine Export Service Providers and Consolidators Association, Inc. (PESPCA).
“Most of the government agencies now lack promotional efforts on our products. And so what happens is that, even if somebody came up with a very nice idea, say for example, one of the products we’ve been getting is a pure calamansi without pulp and sugar, nobody’s been highlighting it and so what happens is that it doesn’t get to where it should be,” Tomas B. Medina, president of PESPCA said at the monthly food forum “Usapang Pagkain” organized by the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (PCAFI) recently.
Medina stressed that the country’s salesmen at the forefront of government agencies “have not learned their lessons on how to properly market and reach out what products should go to overseas Filipinos and what could possibly go to mainstream markets.”
The head of the group of local export consolidators also stressed that while the government says the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) make up 99 percent of total enterprises and only about a little over 2 percent are the large corporations, statistics quoted in most of the trade data also state that the 2 percent which are large enterprises contribute actually 60 percent of total revenue of enterprises and the 99 percent only contribute 30 percent of the total revenue of enterprises.
This, Medina said, is a “very strong and striking imbalance with regard to the positioning and sustainability of MSMEs.”
Medina also illustrated the critical role of export consolidators in giving exposure to small merchants, noting that besides promotion, the country needs to develop new products to be on a par with other countries in the global arena.
“I can put 20 small manufacturers in one container or even 50 and that would give them exposure at the very least to the overseas Filipino market which if we don’t serve, is being served by Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. These three countries have copied the preferred profile of snacks and condiments that we are producing, at a more competitive price,” the head of the group of export consolidators stressed.
“Now, given the situation that we have, these small enterprises being given the exposure through consolidation, another thing that we need to address is the development of new products for the market,” Medina added.
Supermarkets both here and abroad offer the same products, he noted— from the granule-based seasoning, condiments, to the bottled nata de coco which is an ingredient for the Filipino dessert Halo-halo.
“Imagine there is nothing that we have come up with when in fact Thailand has come up with canned rambutan, they have come up with canned nata de coco,” he added.
He stressed, “If you don’t give exposure to our MSMEs, then there will be no more growth, no more new products coming out and the Philippines will have no future in the world arena insofar as product development is concerned.”
With this, he urged the government to create policies to help and facilitate exports, including the elimination of the 12-percent value-added tax (VAT) being imposed on indirect exports under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) law. (Full story here: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2022/11/04/pespcai-gripes-over-12-vat-imposed-on-indirect-exports/)
Based on DTI’s proposed budget for 2023, there was a 35.20-percent (P1.226 billion) reduction for the MSMEs.
A lawmaker also earlier questioned the reduced budgetary allocation for the development and assistance of MSMEs, noting that this contradicts the administration’s “bold pronouncements” to fully support small merchants.
Despite a 10-percent cut in its budget, the Trade department said a month ago that it targets to raise earnings from exports of goods and services to $110 billion next year.
Govt urged to invest in exports devt, promotions
Source: News Paper Radio
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