Business Potential for Agricultural Biotechnology - Asian Productivity ...

Business Potential for Agricultural Biotechnology Products in the Philippines
Table 7. Price Ratios for Export Competitiveness by Variety (2000–01),
Philippines
Variety Export parity Domestic wholesale Price ratio*
Non-GMO Solo 59.16 30 1.97
GMO Solo 33.66 20 1.68
Sinta 33.66 20 1.68
*Price ratio = export parity price/domestic wholesale price; competitive if
price ratio > 1
Source: Laude, 2002
As far as global cost-competitiveness, the ex ante domestic resource costs (DRCs) and
resource cost ratios (RCRs) of Solo and Sinta papaya show possibilities of export competitiveness
regardless of the presence or absence of the PRSV disease. For instance, the RCRs for both
Solo GMO and non-GMO papaya regardless of yield group and port of export were less than one.
This reveals the country’s competitive advantage in producing quality papaya for export. The
Solo non-GMO papaya was more cost-competitive by 42% than the Solo GMO papaya (Table 8).
Table 8. Ex ante Resource Cost Ratios (RCRs) of Solo and Sinta Papaya for Export by Port,
by Biotechnology Delineation, and by Yield Group (2000–01), Southern Mindanao
Low High
Parameter
Non-GMO a GMO b Non-GMO a GMO b
Solo Papaya for export (Manila Port), Southern Tagalog
DRC (P/HOUSD) 28.83 49.51 27.69 48.13
RCR* 0.57 0.97 0.54 0.94
Solo Papaya for export (Davao Port), Southern Mindanao
DRC (PHP/USD) 24.50 41.85 23.36 40.46
RCR* 0.48 0.82 0.46 0.79
Sinta Papaya for export (Manila Port), Southern Tagalog c
DRC (PHP/USD) 42.66 - 42.10 -
RCR*
a
31.36% disease incidence
b
0% disease incidence
c
17.14% disease incidence
0.84 - 0.83 -
*Resource Cost Ratio (RCRs) was used as indicator of global competitiveness.
RCR=DRC/OER; globally competitive if RCR < 1, neutral if RCR = 1, globally uncompetitive
if RCR > 1; official exchange rate (OER) used was PHP51 = USD1.
Source: Laude, 2002
THE WAY FORWARD
Challenges
Successful adoption and commercialization of modern biotechnology products will depend
on increased awareness by the general public of product benefits and safety and the market
orientation of the key players from research to enterprise building, which will require special
skills in technology management in general and market intelligence, market-led R&D, marketbased
regulatory, market matching, and market retooling in particular. While the policy environment
has been put in place through relevant laws and other policy instruments, the lack of
limited expertise to successfully implement, monitor progress, and evaluate impact will remain a
challenge. The current limited policy support on price, transport, microfinancing, and technical
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