Food Industry Stakeholders Enjoined to Help Boost Phl Competitiveness for ASEAN 2015
VOL. XVIII NO. 4 (Nov 1-7, 2014)
BAGUIO CITY – With the expected regional economic integration in 2015, Presidential Communication and Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Herminio Sonny Coloma enjoined food industry stakeholders for a united front in ensuring the global competitiveness of Philippine food products.
In his message during the 2014 Philippine Food Safety Forum at the Crown Legacy Hotel, here read by PCOO Assistant Secretary Cathryne Jonne Licudine-Dalen, he called on the participants to share with the responsibility of levelling-up the country’s food safety and security to internationally accepted standards by adapting to globally compliant operations.
The forum with the theme, “Strengthening Food Safety of the Philippine Food Supply Chain”, is a nationwide advocacy campaign and commitment to food safety. It is spearheaded by Quality Plus Management Consulting Company and in partnership with various government line agencies and local government units.
Coloma pointed-out out the importance of such forum, which can serve as one big arena for information and knowledge-sharing, for the strengthening of food quality and enhancing global competitiveness in the food industry to usher in the ASEAN Integration 2015.
He assured that the government through the leadership of President Benigno Aquino III, is continuously instituting program and projects to immediately address food security issues by always being in the forefront of several undertakings to ensure food safety.
Through the ConsumerNet, consumer protection has already become a public-private partnership that showcases shared responsibility in keeping food safety, ensuring wellness and preventing health risk and consequence,he stated.
The Health Department and allied agencies are also working with their foreign counterparts for compliance requirements, and commit to one another to work as one in combatting the new strains of trans-boundary threats.
Coloma reiterated the importance of a meaningful public -private partnership in ensuring food security and food safety, as well as in boosting the food industry’s global competitiveness.
Meantime, Dalen in her briefing on ASEAN Economic 2015, advised while there are fears that ASEAN integration can be more of a disadvantage than an advantage, it is better that food industry stakeholders will look at it as more of an opportunity to widen their consumer base market.
She cited the Philippine shrimp industry as an example wherein the government is capitalizing on the competitiveness and vibrancy of the industry is pushing to further boost production. From its current P10 billion worth and annual production of 60,000 metric tons, the government is pushing to bring shrimp production to 130 MT a year. /JDP/CCD – PIA CAR
