 | PH eyes agri exports to Argentina |
July 29, 2019The Philippines wants to export several agro-based products – including tuna, virgin coconut oil, coco chips, nata de coco, processed tropical fruits – to Argentina to improve the trade balance between the two countries.
A deal between the Southeast Asian nation and the South American country is now in the offing to make this possible, a Department of Agriculture (DA) official said. Agriculture Undersecretary for Operations Ariel Cayanan recently met with visiting officials of Ministry of Production and Labor of Argentina (MPLA) headed by Undersecretary Pedro Manuel Vigneau, Director Santiago Nocelli Pac, and Flavio Chomnalez. During the meeting, which was held at the central office of DA in Quezon City, Cayanan conveyed the Philippines’ interest to export its world-class tuna and agro-based products like abaca to Argentina. Other processed food products Philippines plans to export to Argentina include coco sugar, virgin coconut oil, coco chips, nata de coco, frozen and processed tropical fruits, among others. To facilitate this, the DA and the MPLA are now in the process of finalizing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish a general framework of cooperation in the agricultural, livestock and agro-industrial sectors. Vigneau, for his part, proposed to bring some of their produce to the Philippines including livestock and dairy. “If we want to sell, we will also have to buy,” Vigneau said. |
