Philippines ACIAR project

Developing Vegetable Value Chains to Meet Evolving Market Expectations

Project Summary

Developing Vegetable Value Chains to Meet Evolving Market Expectations in the Philippines

Philippines | 2019–2024

Context and Project Objective

Filipinos have been found to eat 25% less vegetables than what is recommended by the World Health Organization. The reasons for low consumption of vegetables include availability, affordability, and cultural and dietary factors, including a low opinion of the quality and safety of vegetables.

Market expectations are changing in the Philippines as consumers are increasingly interested in purchasing vegetables that are certified as safe to eat. However, vegetable farmers are not well trained in the appropriate use of pesticides and continue to use unsafe pest control practices involving broad-spectrum and persistent insecticides, resulting in excessive pesticide residues in harvested crops and exposing farm workers to pesticide poisoning.

The overall aim of the Developing Vegetable Value Chains to Meet Evolving Market Expectations in the Philippines project is to improve the capacity of selected vegetable supply chains in the Philippines to deliver vegetables that better meet consumer expectations in terms of quality, food safety, nutritional value, and price. Project activities will focus on:

  • Understanding the food safety, regulatory, and consumer environment in which vegetable value chains operate
  • Developing, testing, and refining a staged Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) protocol to supply consumers with safe vegetables in the Philippines
  • Developing and evaluating enabling technologies and capacity to deliver a GAP protocol in selected vegetable value chains

Expected Outcomes 

  • 2 functional marketing clusters with a total of 30 members in Leyte and Bukidnon
  • 4,600 farmers trained in Philippine Good Agricultural Practices (PhilGAP)
  • Pilot value chain support

EWS-KT Partners

Funding partners: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)

Implementing partners: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR); Applied Horticultural Research (AHR); Visayas State University; ViSCA Foundation for Agricultural and Rural Development, Inc. (ViFARD); NSW Department of Primary Industries; Landcare Foundation of the Philippines; Freshcare

Project Period

1 February 2019 – 30 June 2024

Location

Philippines: Leyte and Bukidnon provinces