Agriculture Secretary Dar meets with German Ambassador Reiffenstuel to boost agricultural trade, highlights coconut and pili products

Agriculture Secretary William Dar is looking to expand the country’s agricultural trade, particularly coconut products, with Germany, one of our leading partners in agricultural exports.

This follows the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) revival of the Philippine Coconut Authority whose board of directors had laid out the Coconut Development Plan to help boost the economy.

Dar met with the German Ambassador to the Philippines, Anke Reiffenstuel, via virtual meeting to discuss agricultural cooperation between the Philippines and Germany, with a focus on the latter’s food imports.

“Balance of trade is in favor of the Philippines, with tuna, banana chips, pineapples, and desiccated coconut as the Philippines’ top four agricultural exports to Germany,” said Dar.

Dar encouraged Germany to expand its importation of Philippine products, specifically coco sugar, ready-to-drink coco milk, coco water, and organic extra virgin coconut oil.

Apart from coconut products and by-products, Dar also mentioned heirloom rice, pili oil (for cosmetic use), pili nut, pineapple concentrate, and cashew nuts as potential added exports.

Dar also requested Germany’s support for the country’s application to export pili nut to the EU as a “novel food.” In previous reports, the EU had categorized Bicol’s pili nut as “traditional food,” per the European Food Safety Authority regulations, and as such, should undergo a market access application.

Dar also expressed his gratitude to Germany for continuing trade relations with the Philippines despite the ongoing pandemic.

According to a Philippine Statistics Authority report, Germany is next to the Netherlands as the major trading partner in export among the European Union (EU) member countries. Exports of agricultural goods to EU countries in the third quarter of 2019 amounted to $265.39 million or a share of 12.5% to the country’s total exports valued at $5.06 billion.

Netherlands was the country’s top buyer of agricultural commodities with Germany following it with an export value of $30.07 million and the UK and Northern Ireland with $25.14 million.

SOURCE: PNA