TOWARDS A NATIONAL FRUITS EXPORT STRATEGY

Mr. Rene Pamintuan, an agribusiness entrepreneur said that he once approached the head of the DA High Value Crops Division, and asked her whether or not they have a national strategy for fruit plantations, and she quickly answered in the negative. Mr. Pamintuan recalls that immediately, he knew that the fruit industry is not going anywhere at all. As a fruit producer himself, Mr. Pamintuan knows that by then, about three years beforehand, Vietnam was already bragging about earning 8.5 billion dollars for their fruit exports. He says that without such a strategy, we cannot move forward on being successful in plantations, in value chains, in processing and in distribution. He said that the problem is having a micro mindset about how the fruit industry should be managed. Beyond having a national strategy for fruit plantations, I believe that we should have a broader National Fruits Exports Strategy instead, to be led by the DFA, but involving the DA, the DTI, the DOST and the DOH as participating agencies, the latter on behalf of the FDA. I say it should be led by the DFA, because this is a gargantuan task that requires economic diplomacy as a solution. When the Foreign Service Act was passed, there was an expectation that the DFA will shift its orientation from political diplomacy to economic diplomacy, especially because the cold war has already ended. The bottom line is that economic diplomacy is a selling job and there is no other way around it. It’s either we sell or we sink. IKE SENERES/01-07-24