By Alithea De Jesus
For so long a time, the Philippine dairy industry is not that popular as far as the agri-business industry is concerned given the dependence of the country on imported dairy products. But with the growing consumption of dairy products in the country, the focus to bolster and promote local dairy production and product development will spur more opportunities for the country.
The Czech Embassy Manila through its Ambassador Her Excellency Jana Šedivá sees this opportunity and plans to enhance the Philippines’ capability and by providing various learnings and strategies that the Philippine dairy industry can consider to meet local demand and eventually expand to the market in the global community in future through export.
As part of the support of the Embassy of the Czech Republic to the Philippine government to revitalize the Philippine dairy industry, a public webinar entitled “The Philippine Dairy Sector and the Way Forward” will be held on February 16, 2021.
The virtual event in partnership with local agencies and Czech universities and companies aims to provide a platform to discuss the situation of the Philippine Dairy sector and to share learnings and strategies employed in the Czech Republic, and innovative solutions proposed by the agencies of the Philippine dairy industry. The event is an opportunity for knowledge exchange and transfer, which will help bridge the gap in developing the dairy value chain as well as optimize the multi-stakeholders cooperation in the dairy sector.
The lineup of speakers and reactors are composed of local agencies particularly the National Dairy Authority (NDA) and the Dairy Training and Research Institute (DTRI); and Czech companies and university namely GeoTest, Impuls, Alltech Czech Republic, and DVF Dairy Farm, Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries, Inc. as well as Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague.
This initiative is part of the already established cooperation between the Czech Republic and the Philippines on dairy value chain analysis and improvement under the Aid for Trade Program of the Czech Development Cooperation Project. The purpose of the project is to help developing countries better integrate in the international trading system and for trade to be an instrument to reduce poverty effectively. The project facilitates experience and knowledge transfer, technical expertise, and assists in policy formulation and implementation of the domestic market to promote a conducive business climate and to develop the market institutions conducive for the sector.
Since the dairy sector remains to be one of the top priorities of the Philippine government, the Czech Republic chose to assists in this area. In 2018, Czech experts visited the Philippines and worked closely with local experts to conduct an analysis on the Philippine dairy value chain, and provided recommendations to develop the dairy sector in the country. This was followed by the visit of Philippine officials to the Czech Republic for a study tour and a workshop held in 2019 which was participated by officials from NDA and Filipino local farmers.
“In strong commitment to continue our cooperation amidst the global pandemic, the use of technology is vital in maintaining our close coordination especially in the area of trade. Through the webinar, we would like to look at where we currently are in terms of our dairy development and it will also provide us more insights to know how we could better cooperate in this area. Thus, we invite local farmers and people who are interested to join us in this webinar,” says H.E. Jana Šedivá, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the Philippines.
The webinar is open to the public and will be held via Zoom. This will also be live-streamed through the Czech Embassy Manila Facebook Page. Further inquiries can be addressed to the Economic and Trade Section of the Czech Embassy through email at czembmnl.eco@gmail.com or telephone number: +63 2 8811-1155 local 27.