THE Philippines’ three-year food agreement with South Korean supermarket chain EMart will earn P28 billion for the country’s agricultural sector and benefit farmers, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said on Thursday.

In a statement, Piñol described the fruit and food supply pact—sealed by President Rodrigo Duterte and EMart President and CEO Gab-soo Lee at the chain’s main outlet in Seoul’s Seongsu district on Tuesday—as the “biggest business deal” struck by the sector “with a single company…through the direct intervention of a sitting President.”