Php35 billion (about $555 million) in farm deals, 30,000 jobs: smallholders plug straight into regional markets

Small farmers usually sell cheap to middlemen because they cannot reach bigger buyers. In the Philippines, that chain is being rewired: ASEAN Business Advisory Council chair Jose Ma. Concepcion III told the ASEAN Chinese Business Leaders' Summit on October 19 that private partners have mobilised Php35 billion (about $555 million) in agriculture investment through 30 joint ventures, generating more than 30,000 jobs. The ventures connect Filipino smallholder farmers directly to distribution networks across the region, with partners from nine countries including Singapore, Thailand, India, Indonesia and Vietnam. For a farming family, a direct line to a regional market is not an abstraction — it is a better price for the harvest.

SDG 8 · Decent work and economic growth — Mechanism: market force