EXPORTERS need to maximize the potential of electronic equipment, machinery, electricity, precious metals, and fruit exports to Europe, according to the Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. (Philexport).
Citing the International Trade Centre’s (ITC) Export Potential Map, Philexport said these product categories have unrealized potential in the European Union (EU) and Western Europe.
The map identified electronic integrated circuits (ICs) and IC processors as the products with the most export potential, valued at $4 billion.
Actual exports of ICs amounted to $1.7 billion and $1.5 billion, respectively, with unrealized potential of about $493 million and $653 million, respectively.
Gold exports amounted to $1.3 billion with $497 million in further export potential.
Storage for data-processing machines had exports valued at $1.3 billion and unrealized potential worth $753 million.
Other products with top export potential are coconut oil, static converters, printers and copying machines, semi-manufactured gold, and parts of automatic data-processing machines.
Nelli Hajdu, ITC EU Market Access Expert, said that several regulatory and policy developments in the last five years have impacted business opportunities in the EU market.
These include climate change and its global response, supply chain vulnerability and changing geostrategic perception of the food trade, and greening initiatives.
“The shift from sanitary and phytosanitary and food safety to sustainability points to the EU trade agenda,” Ms. Hajdu said.
In the agriculture and food and beverage sector, the top products include bananas, crude coconut oil, pineapples (fresh or dried), and prepared or preserved tunas.
Other top products are desiccated coconuts, pineapples (prepared or preserved), mucilages and thickeners derived from vegetable products, edible parts of plants, and frozen yellowfin tuna. — Justine Irish D. Tabile