THE European Union does not see transportation and logistics as an issue of exporting goods from Mindanao to Europe and would also want to offer their storage technologies to help with the longer shelf lives of the exported products.
With the establishment of the Davao-General Santos City-Bitung roll on roll off (Roro) connectivity, European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) President Guenter Taus thinks the trade connectivity is already being worked out in the Philippines and would no longer be a huge issue in the long run.
“Most agricultural products will probably not be shipped out via air. But will be sea-freighted. And since there have been new linkages established now to transship from here to Indonesia, I think the transportation issue is not the biggest issue. That can be overcome and obviously you have operators like Dole Philippines and others that have been shipping products to the rest of the world for many many years. Transportation is not the biggest issue,” he said.
For Taus, what he deemed necessary to be taken action regarding Philippine exports is the proper packaging and storage which would help preserve the quality of the goods and lengthen its shelf life making it last longer upon arriving on its destination.
“We’re looking at ways and means of entering storing products and packaging based on world standards to the Philippines,” Taus said.
Currently, a modern supply chain and mobility solutions through Zetes Industries is being widely used in Belgium. According to Investment and Trade Commissioner for Flanders Investment and Trade Luc Fabry, Zetes Industries operates using logistics identification software wherein chips are being installed in cargos for being traceability.
These chips, according to Fabry, will also help determine the specific temperature needed by the specific cargo wherever it is already while in transit.
The cargos come in specialized barcodes which are properly detected to make sure that parcels arrive in time from the producer to the consumer providing better supply chain linkages.
European Union delegate Walter Vann Hattum also suggested that agricultural products exported by the Philippines to other countries can be further processed to add value to the product. He cited mangoes, which are processed as dried and chips mangoes, can actually last longer while in transit and will even generate more income to the farmers because the product is more value-adding.
r“I think a lot of companies are already involved in these kinds of processing but this is a typical industry where European technologies have a lot of technology and so it would only be about how you can affect these companies to come to Mindanao to invest here and share that kind of technology. And how you can make the business environment in the Philippines and in Mindanao of such a character that those companies feel comfortable coming here because it’s always a risk if you put your money somewhere,” Hattum said.
