Colombian Ambassador to the Philippines Marcela Ordoñez said that Colombia is open to export pork and beef products to the Philippines amid the products’ price increase in the country.
Ordoñez said this when she presented her credentials to President Rodrigo Duterte in Malacañang on Wednesday night.
“Let me focus on our bilateral relation and start with commerce. The amount of goods that our two countries exchange has been growing and we wanted to grow a lot more,” she said.
The DA said a pork supply deficit of almost 400,000 metric tons (MT) is expected this year.
“Some sectors would give us 1.3 [million MT], iyon ang supply. Ang demand po ay 1.6 plus million metric tons. So may potential deficit ka na almost 400,000 metric tons. So iyon po, mayroon tayo talagang kakulangan within the year so kailangan po ito ay supply augmentation ang tawag,” he said.
Colombia willing to export pork, beef to PH – envoy
With this, Dar said the minimum access volume (MAV) advisory council recommended increasing the MAV for pork from the current 54,000 MT to 388,790 MT.
Meanwhile, the Colombian Ambassador also shared Colombia’s experience addressing The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s Army.
“Mr. President, we are not a country to teach lessons to other countries but we do have several good practices, several best practices that we would like to share. Allow me just to suggest our program in reintegration for former combatants that now is a four-stage program,” she said.
Colombia’s four-stage program includes institutional strengthening, the route to reintegration, community approach, and monitoring/evaluation.
“Our two countries have already exchanged talks and best practices on this, but this is something where we believe we could work a lot more,” Ordoñez said.