DEPARTMENT of Agriculture (DA) Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban urged Italian businesses to invest in the Philippines through modernizing agricultural facilities.

Panganiban made the call during his recent visit to Rome for the World Food Forum Flagship Event at the Food and Agriculture Organization.

During his visit, he met Francesco Lollobrigida, Italian Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry.

He said the Italian private businesses can invest in smart agriculture technologies, scaled-up mechanization, commercial scale-oriented technologies, smart irrigation and water impounding or retention systems.

Panganiban added the Philippines is also interested in collaborating with Italy on mainstreaming climate resilience in agriculture.

This would involve deploying sustainable, climate-and disaster-resilient technologies and adopting climate information services.

Panganiban also acknowledged the strong bilateral trade relations in agriculture between the Philippines and Italy.

Based on DA’s record, the total agri-food trade between the Philippines and Italy amounted to some $272 million in 2022, up by 50% from the total value of agri-food bilateral trade in 2020 and higher by 10% from the bilateral agri-food trade value in 2021.

The Philippines’ top agri-food export products to Italy in 2022 were crude coconut oil, tunas, mucilages and thickeners derived from vegetable products, pineapples in airtight containers and banana chips.

Meanwhile, top Italian agricultural export products to the Philippines in 2022 were flour, meals, pellets of meat or meat offal, greaves, dog or cat food, sweet biscuits, waffles and wafers, tomatoes and dried egg powder.

Panganiban mentioned the visit of an Italian Trade Mission to the Philippines last March 2023, where they discussed ways to further strengthen trade relations between the Philippines and Italy.

Five Italian enterprises with expertise in aqueducts, hydraulic engineering, water cycle management, irrigation systems and water treatment facilities participated in the mission.

He also updated Lollobrigida on the preparations being done to foster bilateral technical cooperation in agriculture, particularly in agricultural mechanization.

The Italian agriculture machinery industries have played a crucial role in modernizing Italian agriculture and achieving high levels of agricultural productivity.