Thousands of small and medium entrepreneurs, along
with suppliers and manufacturers gathered at the World
Trade Center Manila, Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City for the Agrilink,
Foodlink and Aqualink 2008 held last October 9 – 11, 2008.
A total of 267 exhibitors from different regions of the country,
47 of which are international companies, brought their products
and knowledge in their respected fields and shared it with other
farmers, entrepreneurs, manufacturers and guests.
Its organizers, the Foundation
for Resource Linkage and Development Inc. (FRLD) came up with
the theme “Sustaining Agricultural Growth through Niche Markets”,
giving high importance to the growing niche market of several agricultural
products that have been left untapped by entrepreneurs from these
disciplines.
In an interview with Mr. Antonio Roces, Chief Operating Officer
and Board Member of Market Information Dissemination (MARID), because
farmers have limited capital and undersized lands; aiming at a bigger
market is a financial risk. By starting at smaller markets, their
innovations and technology at hand, higher advantage can be achieved,
thus, producing greater profitability.
“If they are going to a niche market, they can maximize their
learning and innovative skills rather than depend on big capital.
You become like the big fish in the small pond. Pizza before was
a niche market. But now you have pizzas all over the place. It has
graduated from a niche market to a big market. This is how we hope
we can get the smaller entrepreneurs who have the knowledge and
the expertise and the innovative and creative skills [to] get into
the market even with a limited capital”, said Mr. Roces.
According to him, the initiative for Agrilink started during the
drafting of Republic Act 8435 or the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization
Act of 1997.
“We saw that there was a need for an exhibit so that our
farmers and fisher folks would see what was available and they could
now choose what was most appropriate for them to be able to modernize
and become more productive and more competitive”, he added.
Mr. Roces further shared that, “Part of the missionary effort
is to reach out to many people all over the country. So we realized
that our main clientele here are the agri-businessmen – people
who can buy the equipment. But still, we want, even the smallest
farmers to have access to information and get an idea of what he
has to get into by himself or by a group so they can have the economies
of scale.”
International Agribusiness Exhibition and Seminars (Agrilink),
which focuses on the agricultural products and needs of farmers,
started in 1994 as a trade-seminar focused on hog raising. Its scope
was broadened since then and has been held consistently for 14 years.
On the other hand, the International Food Processing, Packaging
and Products Exhibition (Foodlink), dedicated to new developments
on food preservation, preparation and storage has been continuously
organized for nine years. And the most recent addition, the National
Fisheries Exhibition and Seminars (Aqualink) began in 2005 as a
way to tackle the different needs of the fishing industry.
