Philippine agriculture companies, who are also mentees of Go Negosyo’s Kapatid Angat Lahat sa Agri Program (KALAP), met recently with one of Israel’s largest agriculture companies to explore partnerships and the possibility of bringing Israel’s technology and best practices in the country to scale up local agriculture production.
 

Israel’s Innovative Agro Industry (IAI) meets with companies who are part of the Kapatid Angat Lahat sa Agri Program (KALAP) of Go Negosyo, led by founder Joey Concepcion. In the meeting were (standing, from left): Ofer Tamir of LR Group, Shahar Turgeman of LR Group,  Mat Maderazo of Planters Products, Francisco Dizon of Dizon Farms, Dr. William Dar of Go Negosyo, James Amparo of Yovel East Agriventures, Mina Akram of Go Negosyo, Abby Famadico of Go Negosyo, and Daryll Battad of Go Negosyo. Seated (from left) Christian Eyde Moeller of Lionheart Farms, Lior Crystal of LR Group, JoJo Gumino of Agrabah Ventures, Ambassador Ilan Fluss of Embassy of Israel in the Philippines, Joey Concepcion of Go Negosyo, Rowena Sadicon of Philippine Rice Industry Stakeholders Movement (PRISM), and Toby Gatchalian of Metro Pacific Agro Ventures, Inc. (Photo from Go Negosyo)

Scaling up the production of local agricultural companies would bring the Philippines at par with other global producers.

Israel’s Innovative Agro Industry (IAI), led by Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss and IAI Chief Executive Officer Lior Crystal, met with KALAP businesses and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion.

Crystal said that IAI’s core strength is in bringing in Israeli technologies and implementing these in developing countries.

“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 added.

IAI is also planning to invest long term in the Philippines, and in fact already has a local project team in place in the country.

Even before the pandemic, the Israeli company has set up a strategic partnership with a local company in dairy farming and greenhouse production.

IAI specializes in agricultural technologies for rural development, including water, energy, telecom, health, and construction.

An affiliate of the LR Group, it has undertaken over 100 projects worldwide and has over US$2.5 billion in capital investments in sustainable project development.\

Fluss described the Philippines as “a country whose potential in agriculture is unbelievable.”

“If you do it scientifically, if you do it commercially, [Philippine agriculture] has the potential to succeed big-time,” he said, adding that the Philippines might do much better in agriculture than Israel did because of its tropical climate.

However, for the country to succeed, the envoy stressed the need to develop strong local partnerships, which is where Israel can help by providing its expertise in agricultural technologies.

This is also one of the core values of Go Negosyo, particularly its KALAP program, which seeks to help local farmers achieve scale by bringing sustainable and inclusive business models to micro farmers and forging partnerships and collaborations between government and the private sector.

“This is about helping MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises), and among the MSMEs, the biggest challenge is really with those in agriculture. We are pushing for access to technology and access to markets,” he said, it would continue to be difficult for farmers to get bank loan approvals  unless agricultural production in the country achieves scale.

“It is the dilemma that we face. Scale is important, and how to achieve scale is the challenge.”

The meeting was attended by 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.

Go Negosyo Senior Advisers Engr. Merly Cruz and Dr. William Dar were also in attendance.

Possible areas for collaborations identified during the meeting were in dairy production, water management, solar-powered desalination technologies, and regenerative farming, as well as sustainable and inclusive business models in the agriculture sector.