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The Department of Agriculture is moving to transform ube into the country’s next high-value export, laying out a strategy built around industry unification, boosting planting material production, and a single Philippine brand
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Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. held a consultative meeting with growers, processors, exporters, and researchers, stressing an industry-led rather than top-down approach
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Key bottlenecks identified: fragmented supply chains, inconsistent quality standards, inadequate planting materials, and the absence of a unified national marketing strategy
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The DA is prioritizing the creation of a national ube federation to unify the value chain under a common industry agenda
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Planting material production will be accelerated through tissue culture, community nurseries, and mini-sett propagation
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Stakeholders called for a single Philippine ube brand identity to counter lower-priced regional competitors
The Department of Agriculture (DA) is moving to transform ube into the Philippines’ next high-value agricultural export commodity, laying out a strategy built around industry unification, accelerated planting material production, and a single Philippine brand identity to compete against lower-cost regional rivals.
Agriculture secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. convened a consultative meeting with growers, processors, exporters, and researchers to map out the sector’s priorities, making clear the government intends to follow the industry’s lead rather than dictate solutions.
“We want to identify the actual needs of the industry. I don’t want the Department of Agriculture deciding for stakeholders what the industry needs,” Tiu Laurel said in a statement.
He underscored that the DA’s role is to channel funding, policy support, and research toward priorities the industry itself identifies.
Officials see ube as an emerging export earner with significant untapped potential alongside the country’s established agricultural exports such as coconut, bananas, mangoes, pineapples, and durian, as international demand grows for natural food ingredients and premium processed products.
Addressing weaknesses
Stakeholders at the meeting, however, flagged persistent structural weaknesses: fragmented supply chains, inconsistent quality standards, a shortage of quality planting materials, and the absence of a coordinated national marketing push.
To address these gaps, the DA identified several immediate priorities, with the most important being the creation of a “national ube federation” to unify producers, processors, and exporters under a common industry agenda. Tiu Laurel emphasized the urgency of formalizing the organization quickly, viewing it as a vital first step in enhancing value chain coordination.
On the supply side, the DA plans to scale up planting material production through tissue culture, community-based nurseries, and mini-sett propagation, a technique that multiplies planting stock faster than conventional methods. Proposed propagation sites include Quezon, Laguna, Pangasinan, and Aurora, with additional processing hubs being considered in Mindanao.
Research institutions reported progress in developing new varieties, including a high-yield purple ube that could significantly boost domestic production. The DA instructed researchers to speed up the naming and assessment of these varieties in collaboration with the private sector to identify the cultivars that best fulfill commercial needs.
READ: Ube rakes in $3.06M in exports, on the rise as high-value crop
Branding emerged as a key issue during the discussions. Stakeholders advocated for a unified Philippine ube identity to distinguish local products from cheaper regional competitors, while also expressing concerns that restricting geographical indications to Bohol’s kinampay variety might limit broader national marketing efforts.
Tiu Laurel said the DA would back an independent market study to determine the country’s optimal branding approach and would continue pursuing international registration and legal protection for Philippine ube.
“The real competition is not among Filipino ube growers but with our ASEAN neighbors,” he said.
The secretary also directed the industry to develop a standardized color classification system for purple ube using a Lovibond colorimeter and to concentrate investments in the country’s most competitive production zones.
The DA has reserved funding under its proposed 2027 budget for ube development. A follow-up industry consultation is scheduled for July 23 to finalize priority programs, funding requirements, and the governance structure for what the agency hopes will become a flagship agricultural export industry.
