Blooming food trade seen along Pacific rim: PECC

Blooming food trade seen along Pacific rim: PECC

SINGAPORE (AFP): Increased trade in food is expected among countries along the Pacific rim, despite a slowdown in Southeast Asian economies and decreased production in countries affected by the El Nino weather phenomenon, the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) said yesterday.

The PECC, in its first comprehensive study and forecast of food and agriculture systems of 20 countries bordering the Pacific Ocean, noted that these economies export among themselves 65 percent of their food and agriculture products.

The El Nino phenomenon, however, will have a negative impact on food production of four countries -- Colombia, Indonesia, Peru and the Philippines.

"The ranges of production would be lower by three to five percent in 1998 in these four countries," Constanza Valdes, coordinator of the Pacific Food Outlook study, said at a news briefing.

El Nino is a weather phenomenon which often surfaces around Christmas and brings warm sea currents in the Pacific waters off the coast of South America.

El Nino, which is Spanish for the "Child of Jesus," tends to occur every two to seven years, bringing changing weather patterns across the world.

It said economic growth in the PECC region is forecast at 4.1 percent for both 1997 and 1998, a third faster than the world average.

The report noted "growing concern about the short-term outlook for the Southeast Asian economies, given the recent currency devaluations."

Countries affected by the devaluation such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Taiwan, have growing poultry industries that rely heavily on feed imports, she noted.

"They will be seriously affected by the crisis," said Valdes, who is an analyst with the economic research branch of the US Department of Agriculture.

But countries such as Canada and the United States would be exporting more of their grains, while Chile and Mexico would see an increase in export of fruits and vegetables.

PECC is an independent, policy-oriented organization promoting economic cooperation in the Pacific rim. It is regarded as one of the forerunners of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum which seeks to bring down trade and investment barriers by 2020.

PECC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States, Vietnam and the Pacific island nations.