COPENHAGEN – Beyond prospects in the energy sector, Danish companies are eyeing investment growth opportunities in the food and agri-business industries of the country, according to Philippine Ambassador to Denmark Leo M. Herrera-Lim.

In an interview, he disclosed that “we want to see Arla to be brought there in the Philippines because they have sustainability embedded in their processes.”

Arla Foods is a Danish-Swedish multinational cooperative and touted as the largest producer of dairy products in the Scandinavian region.

The Filipino envoy indicated that “energy and agri-business are the main interests of Danish investors in the Philippines,” hence, these are the two major areas that the Philippine embassy in Denmark has also been aggressively undertaking its investment promotion activities on.

Apart from the plan for Arla’s venture in the Philippines, Lim emphasized that there are also Danish agri-business companies that are keen on offering their technology to boost pig farming or swine production in the country.

“There are several companies here that have technology on increasing pig production – the pigs in Denmark, they tend to have 40 piglets a year versus 12 to 18 in the Philippines; and then the weight conversion -- for every 2.2 kilos of feeds, they’re able to gain one kilo. In the Philippines, it’s around 3.5 kilos of feeds – so that one is pretty much helpful for the country,” he said.

Essentially, Denmark is known for its advancements on pig farming technology – primarily in enhancing the efficiency of its sow breeding technique and enabling them to produce high quality pork products for export.

Through the application of technology, Danish livestock entities are also able to reduce feed waste and they end up improving the health and quality of their pigs, therefore, that has been resulting in higher productivity as well as profitability for their farmers.

Denmark has likewise been innovating on automated feeding system – and when this is employed, farmers would be able to deliver precise amounts of feed to be provided to each pig, thus, reducing the risk of overfeeding or underfeeding; and that in turn, would support their growth and development in a viable way.

Lim added that the fishing sector is another investment realm being promoted by the Philippines to the Danish investors.

“There’s mid-roller fishing boats from Denmark that would be good in terms of getting pelagic fishes which will be useful for the country,” he noted.

Denmark Ambassador to the Philippines Franz-Michael S. Mellbin acknowledged that there’s high interest for Danish investors to explore opportunities also in the agri-business sector of the country.

“The Philippines is a country that import food. And for everything that is needed – the challenge for the agriculture sector is: it is undercapitalized. And there is a productivity gap and also knowledge gap, so if you can address that, you’ll have a lot of opportunities to increase agricultural production and Denmark would want to be very much part of that,” he stressed.