Trade officials bring Filipino brands to Europe

The Department of Trade and Industry is bringing roughly 20 Philippine brands to France, the United Kingdom and Germany this October as the government makes an aggressive pitch to further expand the market of local food enterprises.

Senen M. Perlada, director of the DTI’s Export Marketing Bureau (EMB), said the outbound mission would attend the world’s biggest food exhibition, the Salon International de l’Agroalimentaire (SIAL) in Paris, which will feature the latest in food, retail and consumption trends globally.

According to Perlada, the product focus for this food fair will be fresh and processed fruits, snack foods, coconut products, muscovado sugar, processed marine products, alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, and “naturally functional” food products.

Also to be featured are those products registered under the Geographical Indications (GI) scheme, such as Dagupan Bangus, Tayabas Lambanog, Cafe Amadeo, Davao Pomelo, Batangas Kapeng Barako, Kalinga Highland Coffee, Bicol Pili Nuts, Mindoro Calamansi, Guimaras Mango, Davao Cacao and Cebu Dried Mango.

Perlada said representatives of local food enterprises would also meet officials of companies from Switzerland at the SIAL Paris, to be held on Oct. 19-23 this year.

The same group, which will be led by the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (Citem), will then head off to the UK and Germany for a trade mission, he added.

“We’re just going to provide opportunity for business matching of Philippine brands … locally iconic brands that can become international brands. We will help them find possible partners by way of franchising or maybe even joint venture,” he explained.

Expanding abroad by way of franchising, Perlada said, can help more Filipino exporters in terms of sourcing raw materials and suppliers. Franchisors, for instance, can include in their agreements with foreign firms a requirement to source some of the raw materials from local companies, such as chicken, mangoes, and other distinctly Filipino products. This, he added, is where synergy will come from.

The Philippine franchising industry continues to grow amid the influx of foreign brands in the country. The number of workers employed by this sector grew from about a quarter of a million workers in 2000 to about a million workers in 2011, said Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo.

Franchisors also grew in number from 600 to 1300, while the number of franchisees grew from 30,000 to about 125,000 over the same period. Turnover rose to about $11 billion, from $3 billion, Domingo added.