One of Israel’s
largest agriculture companies met with several
Philippine agriculture companies to explore possible
partnerships, specifically
on agriculture technology.
Israel’s Innovative Agro Industry (IAI) met with companies who are part of the
Kapatid Angat Lahat sa
Agri Program (KALAP) of
Go Negosyo, led by founder Joey Concepcion.
The group from
Israel was led by Israel’s
Ambassador to the Philippines H.E. Ambassador
Ilan Fluss, and IAI CEO
LiorCrystal. The company
specializes in agricultural technologiesfor rural
development, including
water, energy, telecom,
health, and construction.
It is an affiliate of the LR
Group, which has undertaken over 100 projects
worldwide and has over
US$2.5 billion in capital
investments in sustainable
project development.
“This is about
helping MSMEs, and
among the MSMEs, the
biggest challenge is really
with those in agriculture,”
said Concepcion. “We
are pushing for access to
technology and access to
markets,” he said, adding
that unless agricultural
production in the country
achieves scale, it would
be difficult to entice banks
to lend to small farmers.
“It is the dilemma that we
face. Scale is important,
and how to achieve scale
is the challenge,” he said.
A m b a s s a d o r
Fluss said that the Philippines “is a country whose
potential in agriculture is
unbelievable.” He also
noted the need for developing strong local partnerships, and that the
Philippines might do much
better in agriculture than
Israel did because of its
tropical climate. Despite
its challenging geography,
Israel has used science to
grow a thriving agricultural
sector, making it a global
leader in agricultural technologies and a significant
exporter of fresh produce.
“If you do it scientifically,
if you do it commercially,
[Philippine agriculture] has
the potential to succeed
big-time,” said Fluss.
Helping farmers
achieve scale is one of the
solutions put forward by
KALAP, which was created to address challenges
in making agriculture viable in the Philippines by
bringing sustainable and
inclusive business models
to micro farmers, andforging partnerships and collaborations between government and the private
sector.
IAI’s core
strength, said Lior, is in
bringing in Israeli technologies and implementing these in developing
countries. He added that
beyond providing technologies and best practices, it is looking at the
Philippines as a long-term
investment and already
has a local project team in
place in the country. “Our
strategy in the Philippines
is also to come in as equity partners and invest in
places where we believe
would make sense. We
put our money where our
mouth is,” he said. Since
before the pandemic, IAI
has set up a strategic partnership with a local company in dairy farming and
greenhouse production.
In the meeting
were top executives of
the big-brother companies
participating in KALAP,
namely Toby Gatchalian
of Metro Pacific Agroventures, James Amparo of
Yovel East, Christian Moeller of Lionheart Farms,
Francisco Dizon of Dizon
Farms, Kennemer Foods’s
Simon Bakker, Mat Maderazo of Planters Products,
and Jojo Ocol of Agrabah,
PH Agri…
as well as Go Negosyo
Senior Advisers Engr.
Merly Cruz and Dr. William
Dar.
Among the areas
put forward for possible
collaborations were dairy
production; fertigation, distilling systems, and other
technologies for high-value crops and commodities
such as rice, corn, cutflowers, cacao, seaweed, and
fruits and vegetables;water management; solar-powered desalination
technologies;and regenerative farming, as well as
sustainable and inclusive
business models in the
agriculture sector.
