Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon!
Allow me to thank the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI France) for inviting us to speak at your exquisite annual flagship event “Behind the Cuisines,” which promotes the French-Filipino culture through our shared love of food. It is always an honor for me to speak about our bilateral relations and investment opportunities with our friends and partners and this celebration is no exception.
In 2020, France was recorded as the Philippines’ 16th top trading partner, 15th export market, and 17th import supplier. Top Philippine export products include digital monolithic integrated circuits; other parts of aeroplanes and helicopters; and spectacle lenses of other materials, among others. As we can see, among the top export goods, food and beverage, as well as agricultural products, are not found in the list.
However, through our Philippine Trade and Investment Center (PTIC) in Paris, or our commercial office in France, we have been strengthening our promotion for processed and specialty food, including bananas, pineapples, coconut products—such as desiccated coconuts and coco sugar—and prepared or preserved tuna to your country. This goes to show that there is still room for improvement and opportunities for our French businesses and investors for trade in the food and beverage (F&B) sector.
French and Filipino culture have many things in common, but our greatest common point of interest is our mutual love for food. While both our nations are proud of what our cultures have to offer, our taste buds are always open to the cuisines of our friends and neighbors. Here in the Philippines, our fellow Filipinos have grown to love the taste of French food, pastries, and baked goods. Among the most prominent French-owned F&B establishments in the country include restaurants L’Entrecote and La Mère Poulard, bakery PAUL, and café Malongo in Taguig City, as well as L’Epicerie Gourmande in Alabang City. French cuisine has also inspired our fellow citizens as we see many French-inspired yet Filipino-owned restaurants that are patronized by our consumers interested to try new and different tastes.
To give some updates on the state of the food and beverage industry, as we all know, the Philippine food sector and local businesses at large have suffered from the impact of COVID-19. The F&B industry’s gross value added (GVA) stood at P1.75-T in 2020 (at constant 2019 prices). Meanwhile, local food manufacturers have started online selling direct to consumers, and we’ve seen the rise of resellers, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), including those featuring food ingredients. We’ve also seen an increased interest in larger or commercial packages being sold to end-consumers.
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has remained committed to addressing these adverse impacts. Our efforts toward effectively responding to the global pandemic have been guided by our strategic goals: namely, enabling an environment conducive to business, improving access to finance, enhancing management and labor capacities, improving access to technology and innovation, and providing access to the market.
COVID-19 related measures had indeed hurt the industry but recovery in 2021 is expected. Food service providers have generally shifted to online delivery and pick-up platforms. DTI, together with other government agencies, has ensured the continuous unimpeded movement of goods and supply chains since the imposition of the earliest lockdowns last year. As we gradually reopen our economy, among the industries we have pushed to have increased capacities while still adhering to minimum public health standards in the food and beverage sector. This is evident as we see more and more cities outside Metro Manila adopt the Alert Level Systems, which is a simpler way for our consumers in distinguishing allowed establishments and their operational capacities.
Additionally, DTI is here for businesses every step of the way through our capacity-building programs and online webinars, particularly in their shift to digital platforms. While these training programs mostly cater to our local MSMEs, majority of them are open to the public through social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube so even our French-Filipino entrepreneurs can take advantage of them.
That is why we launched early this year the updated e-Commerce Philippines 2022 Roadmap, which the public and private sectors had collaborated in crafting together. Through this roadmap, we aim to increase the contribution of e-commerce to the Philippines’ GDP. To this end, the roadmap’s goals are: increase the number of e-commerce enterprises to a million by 2022; develop a cadre of digital skilled workers to support the growing e-commerce sector.
These are just among the many initiatives DTI has to offer for both our local MSMEs and French business partners. And as we continue to push to strengthen Philippine-French relations, we are glad to note that our Bureau of International Trade Relations (BITR), together with their French counterparts in the Philippine-France Joint Economic Committee (JEC), are heavily engaged in discussions of mutually beneficial trade and investment opportunities for both our countries.
Once again, we would like to congratulate CCI France on this momentous occasion and wish that all participants enjoy the rest of the program, including tomorrow’s most awaited live cooking demo of French-Filipino chef Erwan Heussaff. To all our partners here today, thank you for your constant commitment in supporting French business owners in the Philippines and our local partners, which will continue to generate jobs, thus strengthening consumer demand and further boosting consumption. This virtuous cycle will bring us to a post-pandemic future with a more comfortable quality of life, as promised by our President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
Maraming salamat po, merci beaucoup, at mabuhay tayong lahat! ♦
Date of Release: 22 October 2021