DFA PR
OSAKA 29 June 2020 – The Philippine Trade and Investment Center (PTIC) in Osaka, with the support of the Philippine Consulate General in Osaka, and in close cooperation with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Board of Investments (BOI), and the Clark Development Corporation (CDC), assisted Yokoisada (Phils.) Corporation in expanding its face mask manufacturing business in the Philippines to help meet Philippine and international demand for face masks in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yokoisada (Phils.) Corporation started its operations in the Philippines in 2013 and was one of only two mask manufacturers in the Philippines prior to the current pandemic. It manufactures export quality surgical face masks from the Clark Freeport Zone and its parent company is based in Nagoya, Japan. It is a pioneer mask manufacturing company, having been in the business for more than 60 years. Prior to the pandemic, its Philippine factory exported most of its production, and imports the nonwoven fabric raw material from overseas because there was no local source.
The COVID-19 pandemic rocked the operations of the company in the Philippines last March 2020. World demand for their product skyrocketed, but emergency quarantine measures in the Philippines affected their production and value chain, prompting Yokoisada (Phils.) Corporation to reach out to the Philippine government for assistance.
With the help of PTIC-Osaka, the Consulate General, and the aforementioned agencies, the company was able to quickly get their production facilities back on track to meet Philippine and international demand for their face masks.
Global demand continues to grow for Yokoisada’s products. Encouraged by the support from the Philippine government, Yokoisasa recently decided to expand and double their current production capacity for face masks. More importantly, the company also plans to source and begin the manufacturing of the nonwoven fabric and earloop raw materials for their masks in the Philippines in order to decrease their reliance on raw materials from China. Their Philippine operations will be the main factory of the Yokoisada group.
President of Yokoisada (Phils.) Corporation Yuki Yokoi said that they decided to expand in the Philippines for three reasons, namely: the strong support given by the Philippine government and CDC, especially during the lockdown caused by the pandemic; the many years of continuous operations in the Philippines and their desire to help the Filipino people and contribute to society; and, the subsidy that the Japanese government will be giving the company from its overseas supply chain diversification support project.
“We appreciate Yokoisada’s vote of confidence in the business environment in the Philippines and the Philippine government stands ready to assist and facilitate their investments in our country” said Philippine Consulate General in Osaka’s PTIC Commercial Counsellor Emmanuel Ang. He further added that, “This investment will plug a big hole in our country’s current mask production supply chain and help ensure more reliable supply of masks during pandemics,”.
