The Philippines is setting its sights at expanding exports to two of Asia’s biggest economies and largest markets, China and India, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

In a statement on Wednesday, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and Neda Director General Cayetano W. Paderanga Jr. said with the increasing importance of joining the fast-growing intra-Asian regional trade, increasing trade with China and India would be logical for the Philippines.

Philippine exports may be affected in the “short term” by Japan’s record earthquake and nuclear crisis, Paderanga also said.

“There are indications that the softening demand will be compounded in the coming months by shortages of certain electronic components due to disasters in Japan that have started to negatively affect the electronics industry,” Paderanga said in the statement.

As such, the country should diversify its products and sell to new markets to ensure that the country’s export growth will be healthy and meet at least the 13-percent export- growth target this year, he said. 

“Intra-Asian trade has been growing quite fast. Countries have been selling more to China, especially agricultural products. We will probably explore India, even though [it is] just as tropical as the Philippines,” Paderanga said.

Between the two countries, the Neda chief believes the Philippines has not yet been able to exploit the full potential of India. 

If the country will export products to India, Paderanga said it will likely be in agricultural products. However, the country still needs to identify whether it would be best to export fresh or processed agricultural products to India. 

Based on a commercial brief from the Indian Embassy in Manila, even if the two countries signed a trade agreement in 1979, the growth of bilateral trade between India and the Philippines has been slow. 

The Indian Embassy stated that for the 2009-10 period, bilateral trade between India and the Philippines amounted to $1061.84 million. Around $748.77 million were exports from India to the Philippines, while $313.07 million were Philippine exports to India.  

India exports frozen buffalo meat, which accounts for 12.24 percent of total exports to the Philippines; iron and steel, 9.53 percent; vehicles, 8.21 percent; oil seeds and olea, 8.05 percent; rubber and articles thereof, 6.85 percent; pharmaceutical products, 6.56 percent; electrical and electronic machinery, 6.20 percent; and organic chemicals, 3.91 percent.

The Philippines, on the other hand, exports electrical and electronic machinery and equipment, which accounts for 41.52 percent of its total exports to India; mineral fuels and mineral oils, 14.77 percent; newsprint paper and paperboard, 10.10 percent; vehicles, 6.99 percent; and optical instruments, 3.18 percent to India.  

“The balance of trade has been heavily in favor of India. Trade, however, still remains below its potential,” the commercial brief stated. 

Earlier, former Agriculture secretary William Dar, who is now the director general of India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, said pigeonpea, or kadyos, can be a top farm export for the Philippines to India. 

Dar said pigeonpea in India is used for making dal ,which is a thick soup that is eaten daily there. In 2007 and 2008, India annually imported around 1.5 million metric tons (MMT) to 2.8 MMT of pigeonpea from Myanmar and Africa. 

The Indian study stated that most parts of the Philippines are suitable for pigeonpea cultivation. Pigeonpea in the country is grown primarily as fresh vegetable by small-farm holders for home consumption. It is grown on a limited scale in Ilocos region, Cagayan Valley, Batangas, the Cordillera Autonomous Region, Bicol and the Visayas. 

Dar said planting pigeonpea will also be beneficial to kaingin areas (where burning of trees or farmland are practiced) as it is a soil-and-water conservation crop.