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| Stock photo. Unknown source. |
DA prepares for voracious
East Asia market by 2040
Filipino farmers must be ready for a 600-million East Asian market that has a voracious appetite and changing eating habits.
“In 2040, the global food and agriculture market will be
heavily shaped by Chinese preferences, needs and developments,” he said in a
meeting for policy makers held in Siargao, Surigao del Norte.
The forum was convened by the Department of Agriculture (DA)
and the Southeast Asian Regional Center
for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA).
It is part of the DA
Umbrella Capacity Development Program managed by SEARCA in partnership with the
UA&P, Ateneo de Manila University School of Government and the University
of the Philippines Economics Foundation.
The DA and SEARCA
organized the forum recognizing the need for policy makers to face the
challenges of competitive global agribusiness.
“The world is rapidly
changing,” said Dr. Gil C. Saguiguit Jr., SEARCA Director. “Rising incomes, growing middle class,
urbanization, volatile food and commodity prices as well as climate change are
driving market dynamics.”
“Top decision-makers
at the DA ought to continually keep abreast of these developments,” he said
earlier in Los Banos. “This is vital to reshaping the country’s agribusiness
future and also bringing farm incomes to higher levels and expanding rural
markets by reducing rural poverty.”
“Providing a situation
on the global market environment will enable DA executives identify
opportunities and challenges facing Philippine agriculture, agribusiness in key
markets and competitor countries,” said Dr. Maria Celeste H. Cadiz, Manager of
the SEARCA Knowledge Management Department. “In the process, they will be more
equipped to devise competitive analytics, strategies and innovative solutions
for the country’s agribusiness programs to help develop well-grounded
decision-makers.”
As China streamlines its
food and agriculture system, its influence will be far-reaching, said Dy,
pointing out that China “will shape and redefine” global agribusiness,
biotechnology, food processing, logistics and trade.
It will be an enormous
opportunity for Filipino farmers, he said. “East Asian markets will belong to
suppliers whose customers trust them because of the safety, quality and
identity of their food.” Dy said.
Citing the Food East
Asia 2040 report released this year by the US Grains Council, Dy said the
United States, Japan and other countries will have counterbalancing
opportunities in the face of this rising Chinese power.
Japan's trading
environment, he said, will increasingly be shaped by China. Japan itself offers
an opportunity for farmers in Southeast Asia.
For example, more than
70 percent of food in Japan may be prepared outside the home by 2040. Its “entire
food system, from farm to fork, will be impacted by the shift away from home
cooking,” he said.
Dy pointed out that
successful food industry players will be those that anticipate and adapt to a
market characterized by intensified competition; a shift away from ingredients
towards brands, retailers and restaurants; far greater diversity of consumer
tastes; and continuous technical innovation.
East Asia will be a
leading global player in science-based functional foods, he said. “East Asia's
future elderly, raised more Western-minded than previous generations, will be a
key market for these enhanced foods.”
So-called “traditional
high-tech” diets will spread from East Asia to the rest of the globe.
“Commodity growers can support these diets by growing crops that provide
specific health benefits,” Dy said.
Restaurants, food
service chains, convenience retalilers and other outlets “will become the
consumers' primary interface with the food system,” Dy explained.
“Radical new technolgies to
produce, protect, preserve, test, deliver and prepare food will proliferate.
Competition to serve highly differentiated markets will be fierce.”