The result on the foreign exchange further worsened against the exporters favor as international cash aid flowed to relief and rehabilitation agencies helping thousands of families that lost most of their properties to the floods. The effect is that the peso strengthened to a year-high of P46.45 by Wednesday.
The latest development threatened to again wipe out the small margins of exporters, bringing back the horrors of the year 2007 when the strong peso pushed many small exporters to the brink of going belly up, with some permanently closing down.
An Export Development Council (EDC) executive said that the typhoon victims could not pin their hopes for rehabilitation from the Export Support Fund (ESF) that it administers, since approved projects have already exceeded the initial P200 million released by the Department of Budget Management to the Department of Trade and Industry.
One of the industry leaders said that with the series of adversities hitting Filipino exporters, most are now at the brink of extinction. The full impact of the latest floods are yet to be felt by food processors, a sector which production and exports highly depend on the harvest of farmers for their raw materials. -- Abe P. Belena, PHILEXPORT News and Features <--back
2. Exporters advised to adopt to and help mitigate climate change
Climate change that makes typhoons more destructive and summer days much hotter is not only equivocal. It is already here and exporters have to learn to adopt and contribute to mitigating its effects.
This was the advise made by Ricardo M. Sandalo, program manager of a United Nations-funded project to help Philippine government offices and private organizations build their ability to adapt to climate change.
In the recently concluded 3rd Quarter General Membership Meeting of the Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. (PHILEXPORT), he told exporters the most obvious manifestation of the changing climate behavior in different parts of the world. This comes as a result of the continued emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere since the industrial revolution more than 2000 years back.
The gases that have accumulated in the atmosphere have been melting the polar ice caps in the North and South Poles that is in turn making seawaters swell and low-lying countries vulnerable. The same global warming has been spawning heavy rains and more destructive typhoons during the monsoon months and longer dry spells leading to drought during the summer months.
Sandalo called on business groups and the government to include in their survival kits adaptive and mitigating measures.
Taking as example the food sector in the Philippines, the adaptive measures should include water conservation, water harvesting and storage, better management of water supply systems, better ways of forecasting and warning on extreme weather changes, diversification of crops and livestock and irrigation solutions.
He also suggested that there is a need to develop early maturing rice varieties and varieties that could withstand getting soaked in floodwaters or long dry spells and new technologies that allow for rapid harvesting and post harvesting of crops.
In the fishery sector, he recommended changes in fish stocking and harvesting system attuned with changing weather conditions and the improvement of fish cage management systems.
Mitigating factors like those that must be adopted to cope with frequent floods would include better access to health care, disease monitoring and emergency responses, building of stronger and higher flood control dikes and seawalls, elevating the floors of houses and other buildings in low-lying villages, elevated roads, and more efficient drainage systems.
He urged government units from the top to the local level to work together to include mitigating and adaptive measures as part of their development action plans and programs. -- Abe P. Belena, PHILEXPORT News and Features <--back
3. Collateral-free loans available for micro entrepreneurs
Small entrepreneurs, including the poor ones located in rural or hard-to-reach areas, have other credit options that require no collateral. These are funds provided by the Microfinance Wholesale Lending Facility and the newly-launched Social Investment Fund (SIF) of the PinoyME Foundation.
These are lent to accredited microfinance institutions (MFIs) which re-lend the money to its micro entrepreneur clients.
“Livelihood activities such as trading, production, processing and services are eligible enterprises. However, for the SIF, we prefer value-adding activities such as production and processing,” said the Foundation’s credit and investment officer Andres B. Ruba, Jr.
Ruba said a micro enterprise, those with assets of up to P3 million, can be granted loans as low as P2,000 to a maximum of P150,000.
“These microfinance loans have no collaterals. Borrowers form groups and members serve as co-guarantors of the loans of the group members,” he explained.
Ruba said the MFI lends the funds to its member clients at two to three percent per month payable in six to 12 months, with weekly to monthly amortization of principal and interest, depending on the business activity of the micro entrepreneur.
He bared that the Foundation has already used up its available P75 million credit from the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) for its wholesale lending facility.
“We are in the process of increasing our capital to get more loans from PBSP that will in turn be lent to various MFIs nationwide,” Ruba said. “PMEF was able to get a credit line from the PBSP of up to P250 million.”
On the other hand, the PMEF has already generated a modest amount for the SIF that was channeled to a non-governmental organization (NGO) to finance the expansion of several farmers who are into broiler contract growing with the NGO, he added.
The SIF is intended for high-potential micro enterprises that are located in rural and/or hard-to-reach areas.
“In the coming months, we expect to increase the SIF funds,” Ruba further said.
The PMEF has eight accredited MFIs based in Davao Oriental, Misamis Oriental (Cagayan de Oro City), Misamis Oriental (Gingoog City), Negros Occidental (Bacolod City), Valenzuela City, Zambales (Subic), Nueva Ecija (Cabanatuan City) and Ilocos Sur (Vigan City). -- Danielle Venz, PHILEXPORT News and Features <--back
4. Ten sectors identified in the R&D priority list
The Philippines is reviewing its research and development (R&D) priority list and ten sectors have been initially identified for the National R&D Priorities Plan (NRDPP) 2010-2016.
During the presentation of the first draft of the Plan during the 1st Conference on NRDPP Thursday, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Undersecretary Fortunato de la Peña said the technical working groups (TWG) are looking at existing R&D priorities in assigned areas.
He said the initially ten identified areas/sectors include agriculture and food, energy, environment and natural resources, health, manufacturing and production, electronics, disaster mitigation and management, information communications technology (ICT), biotechnology and nanotechnology.
De la Peña said the proposed R&D prioritization criteria are the project’s technological capacity and their social return on investment, particularly those addressing market failure and producing public good.
“While the private markets tend to under invest in R&D that has high public payoff, government has the tendency to over invest in R&D with low public payoff. These are extremes we are trying to balance,” he noted.
“The basic issue is whether government investment in R&D provides a net public benefit,” he added.
De la Peña stressed public policy interventions to address R&D under investment include the creation of R&D institutions that directly perform R&D, provision of government R&D grants and assuring markets for derived products and services to encourage R&D.
Enabling RDIs and researchers to own intellectual property rights and earn returns from results of publicly-funded R&D investments and provision of tax incentives for private firms to undertake R&D can entice more R&D investments, he added.
He said the country’s R&D priorities would be validated during the 2nd Conference on NRDPP on November 19 which involves more private sector participants.
De la Peña said they hope to submit the final NRDPP to President Arroyo by December 29 this year. Engr. Nelson Beniabon, a member of Inter-Agency Committee overseeing the TWGs, said an Executive Order calling on all concerned agencies to comply with finalized R&D priorities is expected to be signed by January 2010.
Beniabon said government agencies with R&D budget have to spend the amount for the sectors identified and included in the six-year NRDPP.
De la Peña said the NRDPP would synchronize all R&D efforts by various government agencies and serve as a decision-making guide for the allocation and utilization of public R&D funds.
President Arroyo issued EO 604 in February 2007 creating the Presidential Coordinating Council on Research and Development (PCCRD). PCCRD is composed of 13 government representatives and representatives from private sector and organizations of scientists and engineers engaged in R&D.
It is also tasked to review and recommend policies to encourage private R&D and boost international funding for such and increase R&D funding to 0.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of economic performance. -- Danielle Venz, PHILEXPORT News and Features <--back
5. Food sensitivity market emerging
There is an emergence of food sensitivity market, particularly a gluten-free market, which can offer tremendous opportunities to the country, according to an industry player.
This latest trends in natural products was related in a forum by Teresa E. Santos, president of Prosource International Inc., based on new products showcased at the recent Natural Products Expo West. Such event is one of the fastest growing trade shows in the world.
Santos noted that gluten intolerance also refers to wheat allergies or Celiac disease.
“Because many are affected with this, a new segment in the food industry emerged the gluten-free market. This is the fastest growing segment today with sales soaring 18 percent a year,” she said.
Citing the Nutrition Business Journal, Santos said already 987 gluten-free products were introduced last year.
“All signs indicate this trend will continue,” she said.
With the incidence of diabetes, Santos further pointed out that the natural sweetener market is also growing rapidly because artificial sugar substitutes have been branded unhealthy.
She said coconut sugar has been discovered to have lower glycemic index (GI) compared to cane sugar. GI is a measure of the effects of carbohydrates on blood sugar levels.
“This is a big opportunity for the Philippines to tap this market. The demand is big. We need to increase our production,” Santos stressed.
As consumers are becoming more health-conscious, the trend is also towards better health through proper nutrition and healthy lifestyle. “There is a growing demand on natural organic products even if it’s more expensive,” she further said.
Moreover, Santos said there was likewise an emergence of lactose-free products due to market demand. This sector covers those with intolerance to lactose which is the sugar in dairy products such as milk. -- Danielle Venz, PHILEXPORT News and Features <--back
