|
By Ira Karen Apana, Senior
Reporter
Philippine elementary and
high-school textbooks still talk of the Philippines as an
agricultural country which it was in the pre-Second World War era up
to the 1980s.
That is no longer the case,
though. In 2007 the share of agriculture (including forestry and
fishing) in the gross domestic product (GDP) was only 14.1 percent,
basically the same as in 2005 and 2006 (14 percent). GDP refers to
the total value of all goods and services produced within a country
in a year.
The 2007 GDP share of the service
sector was 54.6 percent and that of industry was 31.3 percent.
Before World War II, most of the
Philippine exports were agricultural and forest products.
After independence from the
United States in 1946, the Philippines initially remained dependent
on free-trade access to US markets for its agricultural commodities,
especially sugar.
The decline of the sugar industry
involved many factors, including the expiration of a US quota system
on sugar. The quota favored the Philippines against other
sugar-producing countries. The Philippines got some of Cuba’s
quota when that country became communist under Fidel Castro.
Another factor for the decline
was the drop in the world price of sugar caused by the improvement
of sugar harvests and production, milling and refining facilities in
other countries. Meanwhile, Filipino sugar barons mainly let the
industry deteriorate, kept sugar workers underpaid, and did not
bother to upgrade their planting, milling and refining technology.
The increase in the use of sugar
substitutes also took a lot from global sugar consumption.
Coconuts
The Philippines also exported
great quantities of vegetables and fruits like bananas, calamansi,
pomelo, coconuts, pineapples, avocadoes, mangoes, guavas, mangosteen,
jackfruits, Spanish melons and cantaloupes, watermelons, papayas and
root crops.
Coconuts are still the most
important cash crops, and the Philippines is one of the world’s
leading exporters of coconut products, including coconut oil and
copra (dried coconut).
But buko exports (young coconuts)
have declined to near zero.
As of February 2008, the
government’s list of agricultural and agri-based products that the
country exports include copra, coconut oil, dessicated coconut, and
copra meal or cake; sugar and its byproducts (centrifugal and
refined sugar, plus molasses); fruits and vegetables (canned
pineapple, pineapple juice, pineapple concentrates); bananas and
mangoes; fish (fresh or preserved); shrimps and prawns; raw coffee
(not roasted); abaca fibers; unprocessed tobacco; natural rubber;
ramie fibers; dried seaweeds and a very small volume of rice.
Reasons for decline
Department of Agriculture
Undersecretary for Exports Berna Romulo-Puyat cited different
reasons for the decline of agriculture itself and of agricultural
exports.
She said for some products, it is
lack of supply, pest infestations, higher demand for processed
products, high freight cost and poor quality resulting from lack of
technology.
Puyat said her department is
trying to help the farmers find solutions to their problem.
The other reasons she and other
farming experts enumerated are the conversion of agricultural land
into real-estate properties, the farmers’ lack of capital, the
switch of farms from food crops to biotech crops, the low income
farmers get from farming and the loss of interest in agriculture
among the children of farmers and agriculturists.
Volume and prospects
In the latest Agriculture
department report, the US remains as the country’s top
agricultural export market. In 2007 it imported 902,000 metric tons
or $790- million worth of agri products. Japan followed with $418
million, then the Netherlands’ $258 million, South Korea $181
million, and Thailand $102 million.
The Agriculture department said
dessicated coconuts were the number one export, bringing in $157.43
million, which was an increase of 13.63 percent over 2006 sales. The
top buyers of dessicated coconuts are the United States ($44.526
million), United Kingdom ($18.92 million), Australia ($10.24
million), and the Netherlands ($9.84 million).
The 2007 exports of fresh
pineapples increased 205.65 percent in value over 2006 and increased
178.22 percent in volume. Total sales value in 2007 was $56.84
million. It was only $18.6 million in 2006. The top markets were
Japan ($36.92 million), South Korea ($13.02 million), New Zealand
($1.63 million), and Taiwan ($976,320).
Dried pineapple exports reached
$351,575 in 2007, more than double the 2006 figure of $144,332.
Export volumes on the other hand increased by 225 percent from 66.02
metric tons exported in 2006 to 214.6 metric tons in 2007.
Export values for prepared or
preserved pineapples rose by 14.73 percent from $95.55 million in
2006 to $109.63 million in 2007. Export volumes also increased from
163,885 metric tons in 2006 to 175,151 metric tons in 2007.
Dried mangoes’ export volumes
and values increased also in 2007. Export volumes increased by
167.76 percent from 846 metric tons in 2006 to 2,265 metric tons in
2007.
Mango puree export volumes rose
by 5.51 percent from 7,438 metric tons in 2006 to 7,848 metric tons
in 2007. Export values rose only by 1.97 percent from $8.77 million
in 2006 to $8.95 million in 2007.
Mango juice exports recorded an
increase in both export volumes and values in 2007. Export volumes
increased by 41.83 percent from 2,934 metric tons in 2006 to 4,162
metric tons in 2007. Export value rose by 19.99 percent from $2.77
million in 2006 to $3.33 million in 2007.
Tuna export volumes increased by
49.66 percent from 23,542 metric tons in 2006 to 35,234 metric tons
in 2007. Export sales rose by 65.18 percent from $60.39 million in
2006 to $99.76 million in 2007.
For meat, overall meat exports
experienced an increase in both volume and value for 2007 against
the 2006 figures. Export volumes increased by 25.69 percent from
2,367 metric tons in 2006 to 2,976 metric tons in 2007. Export sales
increased by almost 100 percent (99.94 percent) in 2007, rising from
$4.12 million in 2006 to $8.24 million in 2007.
Exports losers
The export “losers,”
according to the Agriculture department, are fresh young coconuts,
crude copra oil, refined copra oil, raw coco coir, and processed
coco coir.
Puyat said fresh mango exports
have also been declining. But on April 18, eight Philippine fresh
mango companies were given approval to export mangoes to China. This
gives hopes of good income to some 2.5 million Filipino mango
farmers.
Puyat said China’s General
Administration of Quality Supervision has approved Filipino
companies’ technologies that kill micro organisms in the fruits.
Other
exports losers, she added, are fresh bananas, seaweeds, shrimp and
prawns.
|
