Israel’s Innovative Agro Industry (IAI) met with companies that are part of the Kapatid Angat Lahat sa Agri Program (KALAP) of Go Negosyo, led by founder Joey Concepcion, to discover new collaboration opportunities between the countries and agriculture stakeholders.
The company specializes in agricultural technologies for rural development, including water, energy, telecom, health, and construction. It is an affiliate of the LR Group, which has undertaken over 100 projects worldwide and has over US$2.5 billion in capital investments in sustainable project development.
Israel’s Ambassador to the Philippines, Ilan Fluss, and IAI CEO, Lior Crystal, led the group during the meeting.
“This is about helping MSMEs, and among the MSMEs, the biggest challenge is really with those in agriculture,” said Concepcion. “We are pushing for access to technology and access to markets,” he said.
Ambassador Fluss said the Philippines “is a country whose potential in agriculture is unbelievable.” He also noted the need to develop strong local partnerships and that the Philippines might do much better in agriculture than Israel because of its tropical climate.
Despite its challenging geography, Israel has used science to grow a thriving agricultural sector, making it a global leader in agricultural technologies and a significant exporter of fresh produce.
Helping farmers achieve scale is one of the solutions put forward by KALAP, which addresses challenges in making agriculture viable in the Philippines by bringing sustainable and inclusive business models to microfarmers and forging partnerships and collaborations between the government and the private sector.
IAI’s core strength, said Lior, is in bringing in Israeli technologies and implementing these in developing countries. Beyond providing technologies and best practices, it sees the Philippines as a long-term investment and already has a local project team ready.
Since before the pandemic, IAI has started a strategic partnership with a local company in dairy farming and greenhouse production.
In the meeting were top executives of the big-brother companies participating in KALAP, namely Toby Gatchalian of Metro Pacific Agroventures, James Amparo of Yovel East, Christian Moeller of Lionheart Farms, Francisco Dizon of Dizon Farms, Kennemer Foods’s Simon Bakker, Mat Maderazo of Planters Products, and Jojo Ocol of Agrabah, as well as Go Negosyo Senior Advisers Engr. Merly Cruz and Dr. William Dar.
Among the areas put forward for possible collaborations were dairy production; fertigation, distilling systems, and other technologies for high-value crops and commodities such as rice, corn, cut flowers, cacao, seaweed, and fruits and vegetables; water management; solar-powered desalination technologies; and regenerative farming, as well as sustainable and inclusive business models in the agriculture sector.