The agriculture and food sector contributes P6.1 trillion to the Philippine economy annually and employs 18 million Filipinos, representing the immense impact of the sector.
The data is among the findings revealed in Oxford Economics’ latest report “The Economic Impact of the Agri-Food Sector in South East Asia”.
Oxford said the agri-food sector in the Philippines made a gross domestic product contribution of P6.1 trillion in 2019, which marked a 16 percent increase from 2015. The sector was also responsible for 42.7 percent of the entire workforce with 18 million jobs, making it the single most critical source of employment in the economy. The sector also contributed a total of P829.5 billion in tax revenues
The report also revealed disruptions to the sector coming from the COVID-19 pandemic that saw a 4-percent contraction in 2020, or a P262.1 billion drop in its GDP contribution. However, the scale of the impact was considerably smaller than what the economy endured as a whole, highlighting the essential nature of agri-food production and distribution, the report noted.
