Philippines and Chile Convene Inaugural Meeting On Agricultural Cooperation

Attendees to the Inaugural Philippines-Chile Joint Technical Working Group pose for an official group photo following the conclusion of the meeting agenda.

SANTIAGO 11 July 2023 – As part of ongoing initiatives to strengthen agricultural, scientific, technical cooperation between the Philippines and Chile, the Department of Agriculture of the Philippines and Ministry of Agriculture of Chile spearheaded PHL and CHL agencies in the first-ever meeting of the Joint Technical Working Group (JTWG) on Agriculture, held via virtual platform on 6 July 2023, 8:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. (PHL time). The activity is the first landmark meeting to be held under the ambit of the PHL-CHL MOU on Cooperation in Agriculture signed on 17 November 2021 by Chile and on 4 January 2022 by the Philippines. 

Co-Chairs Assistant Secretary for Policy, Planning, and Regulations Mr. Noel A. Padre and Mr. Gabriel Layseca, Head of the International Affairs Department of Chile’s Office of Agricultural Policies and Studies (ODEPA), underscored the importance of the JTWG meeting as a key platform in exchanging best practices between Philippines and Chile, and leveraging the two countries’ complementarities and strengths in agriculture and related fields. 

The meeting covered ongoing areas of cooperation as well as opened avenues for pursuing future PHL-CHL collaboration in: (1) agroecology and organic agriculture; (2) best practices on clustering and consolidation, value chain management (i.e., blockchain model in farm to market integration; (3) knowledge exchange on agriculture and fisheries extension (AFE), delivery systems, approaches, and modalities; (4) cooperation in digital agriculture; (5) knowledge exchange in virtual inspection of processing plants; (6) the Chilean National Strategy of Sovereignty for Food Security; and, (7) Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza or HPAI regionalization to resume Chilean poultry exports.

PHL Ambassador to Chile H.E. Celeste Vinzon-Balatbat emphasized the importance of holding succeeding and more specific meetings on the part of each participating government unit, as well as establishing timelines and tracking the progress of each agreed area of agricultural collaboration. She also echoed and supported the proposal of CHL Ambassador to PHL H.E. Alvaro Jara for the Department of Agriculture of the PHL and the Ministry of Agriculture of CHL to come up with a roadmap to serve as an output document and guide for the completion of the JTWG’s agreed programs and projects.

Joining the Philippines’s Department of Agriculture were other officials from the Bureau of Animal Industry, Agriculture Training Institute, and National Inspection and Service, while joining Chile’s Ministry of Agriculture were officials from its Agriculture and Livestock Service (SAG), Office of Agricultural Policies and Studies (ODEPA), (Sub-Secretariat for International Economic Relations), and the Chilean Embassy in Manila.  Also present in attendance were the DFA-Office of American Affairs, represented by Director Miguel Hornilla, and the Philippine Embassy in Chile’s Minister & Consul General Jim Tito B. San Agustin and First Secretary and Consul Dennis John C. Briones. 

Both the PHL Department of Agriculture and CHL Ministry of Foreign Affairs target this landmark meeting to be the first of many subsequent engagements of concrete cooperation between the two countries and their agricultural agencies and subunits. END

For more information, visit https://www.santiagope.dfa.gov.ph or https://www.facebook.com/PHinChile.