SME food exporters make good business during international food exhibit

Small and medium (SME) food exporters reported sales worth P19.35 million during the recent International Food Exhibition (IFEX) held at the World Trade Center.

The IFEX, an international food exhibition organized by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), is the culminating activity of an integrated program for SME food exporters.

Dubbed as the Integrated Program for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) or IPMSM, the project is funded by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

It is coordinated by DTI’s Bureau of Export Trade Promotion (BETP) and the DTI Business Development Team for Food Products, in cooperation with the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), the Philippine Trade Training Center (PTTC), and the Export Development Council (EDC).

The program benefits cottage and micro level enterprises which supply the local market, but lack the capacity to produce in large volume.

They also do not have the license to operate from the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD).

The license to operate is a basic requirement for food processors.

"We designed the IPMSM with SME food exporters in mind. We hope that with this program, we can increase the number of food exporters. Moreover, we would like existing SME exporters to become bigger, more modern, and more globally competitive enterprises," according to Trade and Industry Secretary Peter B. Favila.

The integrated program involves improvement or building the capacity of the SME exporters.

This is done through trainings to create awareness among cottage and micro food processors on the significance of food safety and basic requirements of food processing plants, such as the sanitary standard operating procedures (SSOP), good manufacturing practices (GMP) and hazard critical control point (HACCP), export destination cornering 23 percent of total food exports or $378.26 million.

The United States followed with shipments totaling $346 million (21 percent of total food exports). China comes in at third cornering about 11 percent.

The country’s food exports continue to grow at an average of 6.2 percent over the last five years.