Philippine companies in Middle East food mission earn US$ 4M

The Philippine Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the food industry, during the International Food Exhibition (IFEX) Roadshow and Food Mission in the Middle East last November 17-26, generated US$ 4 million in export sales, the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM) said.

Giant companies in the Middle East food sector like Federal Foods, Shankai Trading Company, JM Foods, Barth Trading Company, Al Murfa, T. Choithram & Sons, and Oryx Marketing & Trading International are some of the buyers that showed interest in Philippine products. Many of these prospective clients are also interested in visiting IFEX May 2007 to meet more Filipino exporters.

“Philippine companies met numerous potential buyers in their various meetings with the Chambers of Commerce and Industry in United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain,” Trade Assistant Secretary and CITEM Executive Director Felicitas Agoncillo-Reyes commented.

During the roadshow promotion, which is dubbed as ‘IFEX Philippines Goes to the Middle East,’ the Philippine delegation also met with the Food Control Office of the Dubai Municipality and the Bahrain Food Health Control Office, where they were briefed on the rules on labeling, packaging, and Arabic translation of the ingredients, manufacturing date, and expiration date.

Also, the participating SMEs have visited all the leading supermarkets/hypermarkets of the Middle East countries and were able to appraise how their respective products are performing in terms of price, packaging, labeling, and promotion strategy as against their competitors. It was observed that Filipino food products such as soy sauce, fish sauce, vinegar, fish and shrimp paste or bagoong, food base mixes, crackers, and nata de coco are present in all of the small and large stores in these countries.

Participants that joined the mission include Florence Foods Corporation (fruit preserves, marine products, virgin coconut oil, noodles, frozen root crops and vegetables); Monde Nissin Corporation (biscuits, cookies, cookie sandwich, cracker sandwich, pastry type, wafers); Q-Phil Products International (noodles, condiments and sauces, bottled sweet preserves); RFM Corporation (recado mixes, native cake mixes, pasta spaghetti sauce, noodles, fruit drinks, flavored milk, ice cream, canned. processed meat); Philippine Grocers Food Exports Inc. (assorted food products); Republic Biscuit Corporation (biscuits, cakes, seeds, wafers, candies, snack items) and; W.L. Food Products/Sam Lim Corporation (corn snacks, fried green peas, coated peanuts).

“Buyers from the Gulf States showed high interest in Philippine products. The Filipino communities based in the Arab world are also a ready market for us, “ Agoncillo-Reyes added. “Statistics shows that Kuwait has some 130,000 Filipinos, Bahrain has 30,000, Qatar has 74,000, while U.A.E. has 100,000 Filipinos.”

Furthermore, the members of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry also expressed their interest towards expanding the areas of bilateral cooperation to include sectors in construction, engineering, architectures, designs, power and energy, transportation, IT, and communications. The Chambers reported that the GCC economies are at their highest peaks and therefore in best positions to offer business opportunities for the Philippines in these industry sectors.

“I believe that this year’s IFEX Roadshow and Food Mission to these 4 GCC countries was a huge success. The mission’s objective of sustaining the expanding presence of Philippine food exports in these markets, as well as the goal to strengthen the image of the Philippines as a reliable supplier of imports, is well accomplished,” said Agoncillo-Reyes.

The IFEX Roadshow promotion was organized by the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), in cooperation with the Philippine Trade and Investment Center in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and the Philippine Embassies in Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait.