Phl agri firms explore partnerships with Israeli agri giant

One of Israel's largest agriculture companies recently met with several Philippine agriculture companies to explore possible partnerships, specifically on agriculture technology. Israel’s Innovative Agro Industry (IAI) met with companies that are part of the Kapatid Angat Lahat sa Agri Program (KALAP) of Go Negosyo, led by founder Joey Concepcion.

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The group from Israel was led by Israel’s Ambassador Ilan Fluss and IAI CEO Lior Crystal. The company specializes in agricultural technologies for rural development, including water, energy, telecom, health, and construction. It is an affiliate of the LR Group, which has undertaken over 100 projects worldwide and has over 2.5 billion in capital investments in sustainable project development.

“This is about helping MSMEs, and among the MSMEs, the biggest challenge is really with those in agriculture,” said Concepcion. We are pushing for access to technology and access to markets,” he said, adding that unless agricultural production in the country achieves scale, it will be difficult to entice banks to lend to small farmers. It is the dilemma that we face. Scale is important, and how to achieve scale is the challenge,” he said.