Text and Photos by Henrylito D. Tacio
Most people equate Pilmico with feeds, but there are two other Fs: flour and farms. All three are under Pilmico Foods Corporation, a subsidiary of Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV).
Even before Pilmico became known for its feeds, it has been providing Filipinos with world-class wheat flour and related products since 1962. In fact, it has been ranked among the top three domestic flour producers of the country in terms of sales.
In 1998, Pilmico started producing high quality feeds for poultry and pigs through its Pilmico Animal Nutrition Corporation. “In partnership with Longview Research Center in the United States, we make sure that every product we produce is consistent in quality and performance,” said its brochure.
In January 1999, the nutrition corporation started its swine operations in Capas, Tarlac. As part of its key to continuous growth in the swine industry, the company provides technical expertise and excellent her health program.
Just recently, Pilmico launched a series of advocacy and sustainable livelihood programs which are geared specifically to areas under poverty, tragedy and conflict.
It all started when Super Typhoon hit Visayas in 2013. Pilmico launched “Bangon Visayas” campaign in response to the needs of those affected by calamities. “Our modest support came in the forms of relief operations, rehabilitation efforts and creation of business opportunities to affected families,” said Gregory G. Canoy, a corporate social responsibility staff.
As a way of helping those people rebuild their lives, the Mahalin Pagkaing Atin (MPA) was initiated in July 2014. The program aims “to encourage more farmers to invest in manufacturing local produce.” In addition, it is a way of encouraging “corporations and entrepreneurs to buy home-grown food instead of importing from abroad in the hopes of bringing forward the quality of local Filipino goods, which showcases that local quality food can be better than foreign produce.”
Aside from helping those places with high incidence of poverty, disasters and conflict, the program wants to promote sustainable entrepreneurship among its partners and to instill their mindset with “pride of product, pride of place” among producers and consumers.
“As such, the operator can maximize his profit without passing through middlemen,” Canoy pointed out.
Take the case of backyard swine raising. “Raising swine in the backyard is a good way to augment people’s income,” says John Paul Pangilinan, Pilmico’s marketing manager. “It takes very little effort to put up a backyard piggery. In fact, people in the rural areas can raise a pig or two in a small place.”
The increasing meat consumption, particularly pork, has driven Pilmico to scale up backyard swine raising in the country. Data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations showed that more than 80% of hog production is from backyard farms.
Based on the company’s assessment, most of these who raise livestock are deterred by lack of capital and technical knowledge. “We are here to change that,” Pangilinan said.
Pilmico launched the Diamond Program to help its customers’ partner for growth by educating them on proper livestock backyard raising. “The program is an integrated approach towards successful swine farming anchored on the four pillars of complete health care, breeding and genetics, sound management and excellent nutrition,” Pangilinan explained.
In Davao City, one of these who benefited from the MPA program is Amancia Bacarisas, a widow whose one big dream is to have a piggery with 50 heads which would supplement the small income that she gets from her sari-sari store.
A backyard raiser with only five sows, she was ecstatic when she was chosen as one of the recipients of MPA’s Davao-leg of Pilmico Food and Livelihood Expo at the Barangay Mintal Gymnasium recently. “I was given two pigs and so I have seven pigs now,” she said. “It’s a great help already. Success usually starts from small before becoming big.”
Even Chef Boy Logro, who is MPA’s ambassador, believes so, too. He admitted that despite his celebrity status, he is into backyard farming having a swine farm and a chicken farm up on the hills of Laak, Compostela Valley.
“It may be up in the mountain, but that’s where the treasure is,” he said, telling backyard farmers that they are lucky to have their own business. “I may have been poor but I worked hard and I did not allow poverty to stop me from achieving success.”
In a press statement, Sabin M. Aboitiz, Pilmico president and chief executive officer, said: “We hope that through Mahalin Pagkaing Atin, we will be able to provide the means for our farmer friends to uplift their lives and sustain an adequate livelihood.”
According to Canoy, MPA has given 14 assistance to so-called Pilmico agriposts: 646 piglets and 191 egg machines. In addition, it has extended assistance to 304 families in various parts of the country, including Bohol, North Cebu, Ormoc, Palo, Carigara, Baybay, and Tacloban in Leyte, Capiz, Pampanga, and Nueva Ecija.
Each agripost received feedbags as “restart-up” stocks capital. Hog raisers received two piglets and one cycle feed consumption. On the other hand, recipients of egg machine received 48 heads of ready-to-lay chickens and corresponding one month feed consumption.
“In Davao del Sur, we are going to give assistance to families by dispersing 20 piglets and 8 sets of egg machines to deserving recipients,” Canoy said.
0 Comments
Oldest