Climate change, natural disasters, and the COVID 19 lockdowns have had an enormous impact on the Agricultural sector in the Philippines. Coupled with the growing population and the limited land resources the country's production is unable to keep up with the demand. All of these combined in recent years served as a wake-up call for the country to address food security. The crisis has contributed to the alarming numbers of malnutrition and hunger in the country. The country has always had the goal of self-sufficiency but most of the country is reliant on imports such as rice for food needs; this reliance on imports has only grown in recent years.
One way to address the issue of food security is to promote the local agriculture and fisheries industry. Not only does society have to buy from local farms but measures to enhance the competitiveness of our agriculture and fisheries must be implemented along with policies to ensure its sustainable growth. How we promote our local food items to the market and directly connect this to our local farmers is an obstacle we need to address since food security is a community effort consisting of government aid and support from the private sector and consumers.
In line with this, the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines will be hosting a webinar entitled, "Go Local: CommUNITY Towards Food Security" which will be held on 23 August 2022 from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM (GMT +8) via Zoom. The webinar aims to discuss and emphasize how the community plays a part in achieving food security. By this means, the above-mentioned conference will provide methods and tools for promoting local farms to the consumer market and providing these opportunities to farmers.
In close partnership with government, businesses, civil society, and academia, ECCP passionately works to enhance the business environment for both European and Filipino companies.