By Dean Aubrey Caratiquet
At the sidelines of the 47th ASEAN Agriculture and Forestry Ministers Meeting, held from Sept. 29 to Oct. 3, Department of Agriculture (D.A.) Secretary Francisco Tiu-Laurel Jr. and his Japanese counterpart, Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Shinjiro Koizumi, held bilateral talks to strengthen both nations’ ties on agriculture and technology exchanges.
In the meeting, Secretary Tiu-Laurel requested improved market access for Philippine pomelo and reiterated the country’s call to eliminate tariffs on fresh bananas, with the Southeast Asian nation serving as Japan’s top supplier of the yellow fruit.
Tiu-Laurel said in a news conference, “The Minister (Koizumi) promised to look into it. I told him the Philippines will persistently pursue this. I really hope we can resolve this issue as soon as possible.”
He added, “But of course, they have their position. The Philippines is also going through the CEPT (Common Effective Preferential Tariff)…on duty-free to Japan. But it might take time, a few years to complete. So we are looking at the angle of bilateral agreements to speed up the process.”
Japan, the Philippines’ second-largest importer of agricultural and fishery products in 2024—with purchases exceeding USD 1 billion—has also expressed interest in exporting fresh grapes to the Philippine market.
Minister Koizumi confirmed that Japan has submitted a pest risk analysis and technical documents to the Bureau of Plant Industry of the Department of Agriculture to support its request.
The two agriculture ministers, meanwhile collaborated on further expanding the cooperation of both nations under the ASEAN-Midori Cooperation Plan and the Philippines-Japan Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) on Agriculture, which would introduce technological upgrades in the domestic agriculture and fisheries sector.
This would entail integration of smart agriculture, research and development, technology transfer, postharvest technology, mechanization, diagnostic laboratory upgrading, and development, and pest and disease management.
And in a bid to further enhance sustainability, Secretary Tiu-Laurel voiced his support for the proposed Joint Crediting Mechanism on the adoption of Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) technology for rice farming, noting its potential to cut on emissions while boosting productivity and profitability in the country’s paddy fields.
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