Daily TribuneEU market access may be challenging but gaining entry can yield vast benefits. Philippine exporters have access to a wide range of support systems which can be found in the International Trade Centre’s Export Potential Map, a tool where exporters can see what kind of exports have already been conducted and the missing potentials they can build on.
Filipino exporters, particularly of agri-food products, are encouraged to unlock opportunities in the European Union (EU) which is comprised of 27 countries and 450 million consumers with a massively increased purchasing power, amid regulatory and policy developments in the market.
Nelli Hajdu, EU market access expert at the International Trade Centre (ITC), cited several regulatory and policy developments in the past five years impacting business opportunities in the EU market.
Hajdu said these are climate change and its global response, supply chain vulnerability and changing geostrategic perception of “food trade,” and the “Green Deal” initiatives changing dynamics in the European agricultural environment with impact on trade.
“The shift from SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary) and food safety to sustainability slows (the) EU trade agenda,” she said during the recent EU-Philippines Partnership Conference.
Launched in 2019 as part of the EU’s growth strategy, the European Green deal targets to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
“EU market access may be challenging but Philippine exporters have access to a wide range of support systems,” Hajdu said, citing ITC’s Export Potential Map, a tool where exporters can see what kind of exports have been already conducted and where the missing potential they can build on.
Based on the Philippines Export Potential to Europe Arise Plus Report, Hajdu said top local agriculture, food and beverage products include bananas; crude coconut oil; pineapples (fresh or dried); coconut oil (excluding crude) and fractions; prepared or preserved tunas;desiccated coconuts; pineapples (prepared or preserved); mucilages and thickeners derived from vegetable products; edible parts of plants; and frozen yellowfin tuna.
Citing the ITC Export Potential Map, she said, Philippine products with potential to the EU and West Europe are electronic equipment, machinery, electricity, precious metals, and fruits.
Hajdu also highlighted consumer and food industry trends in the EU.
“Obviously convenience is something you hear a lot of time. There is unfortunately not such an uptake on e-commerce as here in Southeast Asia and other countries,” she said.
“Because of the market power, there is a lot of interest in pleasure and wellness so if you have some interesting fixtures, functional foods, this is the market to go and obviously, consumers are becoming more sustainability and environmentally-conscious…,” she added.
Hajdu further cited the element of bioeconomy.
“We are at the stage of advancing this topic so what can we do with agricultural commodities beyond food, how can we use it, and I think the Philippines has a lot of raw materials so this is something to be explored more and to be used better,” she said.
