THE Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) Export Marketing Bureau (EMB) urged exporters to expand their presence in India, a potential market for Philippine goods which the EMB estimates at $566.92 million.
In a statement, the Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. (Philexport) said the EMB Assistant Director Jhino Ilano pitched India to exporters, citing that market as an opportunity to be pursued.
Philexport, quoting Mr. Ilano, who was speaking at a briefing organized by the EMB, said: “There is an opportunity for us to really make our exports higher than what we are importing.”
Mr. Ilano estimated an unrealized market of $436.96 million for machinery and electronic equipment exports to India, and an unrealized market of $3.94 million for processed food.
“The best thing to sell to them would be food. Because the major observation is this: people in India are not actually fond of cooking food for themselves because they are very busy (with work to) maintain a certain lifestyle,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ilano said that Philippine exporters could also unlock a potential of $1.4-million Indian export market for personal care and beauty products.
“Indian consumers actually believe that coconut oil has a more moisturizing effect than a usual lotion. So this would tell you that coconut is a very good product that can be sold in the Indian market. Coconut is considered the tree of life here in the Philippines because nothing is wasted,” he said.
“For Indian color cosmetics, the market is expected to grow stronger than other beauty products. So coloring in terms of the hair, for the skin, they are very fond of it,” he added.
“We have lots of products that would have great potential but sometimes our farming is just focused primarily on specific products so we really need to look at what products can actually sell,” he said. — Justine Irish D. Tabile
