Fake Nestlé products sold in the market include Milo, Nescafe, Coffeemate and Bear Brand.

Trade and Industry Undersecretary Elmer C. Hernandez said the DTI is going to meet on March 8 together with DTI Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya, in charge of consumer welfare, to take steps on how to protect the global giant producer of food products from unfair trade practices.

Hernandez said that counterfeiting of Nestlé products was discovered in June 2002 but the illegal activities later subsided. It was only in 2004 that counterfeits have started to pick-up again.

"We have to give protection to consumers because this impact on the health of the consumers and we must also protect the huge investments of Nestlé in the country," Hernandez said.

"We have to do something on how we can minimize or stop completely these counterfeiting activities," he said.

So far, Nestlé has formed its own legal taskforce that is working closely with the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation.

The Swiss-owned company has also put up a bounty for tipster on counterfeit operators. So far, the company has awarded a total of P2.6 million to tipsters.

According to Hernandez, he was shown samples of fake Nestlé products and was surprised to see that one cannot really spot the difference on the packaging of the product.

"These illegal operators have state-of-the-art equipment thus the operators can produce already huge volumes," he said adding that "only a trained eye can tell the difference in the packaging between a fake and genuine Nestlé products."

Nestlé, however, was not much concern as to the impact of its sales but on the protection of its brand and image.

The target market for the fake Nestlé products are the "sari-sari" stores and the provincial outlets although Nestlé had already found out that one major supermarket in Manila had been penetrated by fake products.

The retailer also may have unwittingly chosen to buy the product because it has cheaper price.

Nestlé is a big investor in the country being its ASEAN production hub for a number of its products including breakfast cereals, infant formula milk and filled milk powder.

Early this year, Nandu Nandkishore, Nestlé Philippines Inc. chairman, CEO and president, announced of a plan to invest P2.5 billion to improve its Philippine operations,

Nestlé has been continuously investing to improve its Philippine operations.

In 1991, Nestlé pioneered a regional complementation program — the ASEAN Industrial Joint Venture – making its Lipa factory the production hub of breakfast cereals for the ASEAN market.

In 2001, Nestlé Cabuyao and Cagayan de Oro factories were expanded to serve as the ASEAN supply centers for infant nutrition and filled milk powder, respectively, to meet the requirement of Nestlé markets in the region.

Nestlé Philippines exports last year was placed at 0 million. This year, Nandkishore expects its exports to increase by 10 percent over last year’s figure.(BCM)