THE DAVAO Region Cacao Council said the Tatak Pinoy Act (TPA) could further help the agricultural sector, especially cacao to establish its branding initiatives, making it a nationwide movement to boost high-quality agricultural products in the global market.
During the Mindanao TPA forum on Aug. 28, Dante Muyco, Jr., Davao Region Cacao Council chairperson, said the program is timely as one of the weaknesses observed especially for the agricultural sector is the lack of branding initiatives.
“Branding in the sense that we should be moving as one brand, a nationwide movement because if you see South Korea, for example, the beauty products industry there, ‘yung kumikilos is not just the company or manufacturing, but multimedia, the policies of the government are geared towards promoting that sector. So it means that if you want the agriculture sector to be really progressive for Mindanao, then we have to act as one,” Muyco said.
Muyco mentioned that the country could go into branding by stipulating Philippine products to be high-quality and excellent.
“I think for the cacao sector for that matter, we‘ve been exporting for the past 10-15 years already, but then the level of image of the Philippines in the international market is very low compared to countries like Ghana or Madagascar. So anong ibig sabihin nito, the importing countries from Europe, if they’re going to import coming from these countries, they pay a very hefty premium on over the market prices. But when they buy from the Philippines, they only pay the world market prices,” he said.
He noted that importing countries pay more for other countries because of their capacity to assure the markets their products were ‘good and high quality’.
“So I think the branding initiative that we have will really help the agriculture sector especially if we move as one,” he added.
Noel Provido, Department of Agriculture XI PRDP project director and chief admin of finance, also stressed that proper irrigation is one of the constraints identified within the agricultural sector.
“Farmers are vulnerable to shocks because like in the case of El Niño that happened recently, there is a pilot test for the farmer and they said pag naka-irrigate sila then the quality of products is acceptable in the market. And to stabilize that production we need to go into irrigation and a drip irrigation system to apply fertilizer that is precise going to fertigation leading towards digitization,” Provido said.
Provide also urged LGUs and private sectors to help invest in these projects to meet the demands of the global market.
According to the National Economic and Development Authority’s Davao Region 2023 industry report, cacao as one of the major crops in the region, declined by 0.1% for the year 2023, from 8,031 metric tons in 2022 to 8,024 mt in 2023.
The Tatak Pinoy (Proudly Pinoy) Act, which was enacted on 26 February 2024, also known as the RA 11981, aims to enhance the productivity and competitiveness of Philippine industries in the global market, produce a diverse array of more complex and high-quality products, and move up the global value chain.
