Posted on March 09, 2015 09:40:00 PM
BASTIONS OF AGRIBUSINESS 2: LUZON
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THIS IS A follow-up to an article published on Dec. 16, 2014, with the same title that focused on the Visayas and Mindanao. This time, the focus is on Luzon.
Luzon is the country’s largest island. It hosts many agribusiness clusters and account for about 55 million out of 103 million of the Philippine market. Metro Manila, Laguna, Cavite, Rizal and Bulacan (“Expanded Metro Manila”) have some 24 million consumers.
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Central Luzon and Calabarzon supply food to over 12 million Metro Manilans. The regional firms are mostly domestic market-oriented in contrast to Mindanao’s agribusinesses. Central Luzon accounted for 13.7% of the total national agriculture production in 2013, followed by Socsksargen 9.3%, and Calabarzon 8.8%. Similar rankings apply for the fisheries subsector. (Note: Data came from the Philippine Statistical Authority.)
Calabarzon has 40% of the country’s total manufacturing output, Metro Manila 21%, and Central Luzon 13%. No breakdown for food manufacturing, but Calabarzon should be leading other regions like the Central Visayas and Davao. The four leading agribusiness provinces are Bulacan, Laguna, Batangas and Pampanga. Outward expansions are in Cavite, Rizal, Tarlac, Pangasinan and Quezon.
The provinces around Metro Manila have benefited from large local markets as well as good logistics. However, prices for land and labor are rising. The rising cost of property and the encroachment of subdivisions could mean that owners of hog and poultry farms in Bulacan, Batangas and Laguna will sell out and look for other locations, or altogether get out of the business. Expansion to other areas faces bureaucratic red tape from the barangay officials who have the major say in approvals. There are already cases of fishpond expansion in the South whose permit takes over one year to secure. Local governments have become stumbling blocks to investments and job creation.
PAMPANGA
Pampanga has a population of about 2.5 million. Its dominant crop is rice. It is the country’s top producer of chicken (surprisingly!) with 9% of production, and the third-largest egg producer. The province is the leader in aquaculture production with 20% of national farm value. It supplies 40% of total tilapia and 8.5% of bangus. The province is known as a meat-processing center. Some 365,000 hogs were slaughtered there in 2013.
The province is home to leading food firms, such as Pampanga’s Best, Mekeni Food, Roel’s Food, Mother Earth, Minalin Poultry and Livestock Coop, Sweet Crystal Sugar Mill, Grupo Agro, Coca Cola, Invictus Food, RBest Food, Premium Food, Sino Food, Tollhouse Service Inc, Metro Shanghai, Samsuan Delicacies, Aiza’s Sweets, TGA Foods, Nan Foods, Malows Meat Products, and Navarro Food Intl.
Scorecard: Over 20
BULACAN
Bulacan has a population of about 3.4 million and is one of the most populous provinces in the country. It is the major rice-processing center. Intercity Industrial Estate in Bocaue has over 100 rice mills. The top five mills are: TL3MJ, R&E, RKR, JEM, and Car-Jenn.
The palay for milling comes from Ilocos, Cagayan-Isabela and Nueva Ecija. Rice is brought to Metro Manila to feed its 12.2 million people plus about three million day-time transient population.
Bulacan is the largest producer of hogs. In 2013, it produced almost 12% of national production of two million tons, live weight. According to an industry player, there are about 25 farms with sow-level of 1,000 or more (about 10,000 pigs in each farm). Robina Farms is among them.
Bulacan is also the second-largest producer of chicken, after Pampanga. Bulacan is the fourth-largest producer of aquaculture products by value. It is the leading producer of bangus.
In food industries, the province is the largest producer of dressed chicken, 82 million out of 481 million in 2013. It also accounted for 524,000 hogs slaughtered out of the total 10.3 million in 2013, the country’s third largest after the National Capital Region (NCR) and Rizal.
The province is home to major animal-feed firms like Cargill Feeds, Cheil Jedang (Korea), Feedmix Specialist, Santeh Feeds, Sunjin Philippines, and Vitarich. It also hosts farm inputs supply companies such as EastWest Seed, Compania JM, Calata, and Monsanto.
The swine breeders include: Daily Harvest, IMI Farm, Pacific Breeder, and Pig Philippines.
Bulacan also boasts of many processed-food firms: Agrinurture, AFPC, Agrisolutions Inc., Big E Food, Bulacan Dairy Coop, Bounty Fresh Food, Centennial Food, Cereal Food, Fisher Farms, Inc., Flavor Food, Foster Foods, Jockers Food, Ilustrados Premium Cacao, JNRM Int’l, Jasoncu Food, Joyful Heart Food, JSD Food, Kian Sun Corp, LCD Food, Komeya Food, Multi-rich Food, Pollen Food, Profood, Marby Food, MJB Food, KSK Food, Markenburg Foods, Royale Cold Storage, R. Lapid, RL Marine, See’s Int’l, Sevilla Sweets, Sham Na Food, Sucere Food, Vina’s Food, VWA Food, and W.L. Food.
Scorecard: Over 60
CAVITE
Cavite has a population of about 2.3 million. It has the fourth-largest number of slaughtered hogs (513,000) in 2013, after Metro Manila, Rizal and Bulacan.
The major companies are Liwayway/Oishi, Monterey Farms, Nissin-URC, Magnolia Inc., Philippine Dairy Products, Phil-Malay, Purefoods-Hormel Co, Sustamina and W Hydrocolloids. The others include Alfonso Tablea, Annie Candy, Caffmaco Feeds, Candyline Food, Don Roberto’s Winery, Gourmet Farms, Jacobina Biscuits, KLT Fruits, Newborn Food and Yan Hu Food.
Scorecard: Over 25
LAGUNA
Laguna has a population of about 2.6 million. Its main crops are rice and coconut but production is declining due to rapid urbanization. It ranks among the top 10 hog and chicken producers and among the top five in tilapia production. Some 409,000 hogs were slaughtered in 2013.
The province hosts the longest list of well-known food processing locators. They include Alaska Milk, Asia Brewery, Cargill, Coca-Cola Bottlers, Doughnut People Inc, Emperador Distillers, Franklin Baker, Gardenia Bakeries, General Milling, Ginebra San Miguel, Mix Plant Inc, Monde Nissin, Nestle, NutriAsia, Pacific Meat, Pepsi-Cola Far East, Philippine Health Food, Ram Food, RC Cola, Rebisco, Ritz Food, San Pablo Manufacturing, Tanduay Distillers, Universal Robina, Yakult, Zenith Foods (Jollibee Commissary), and Zesto Corp.
The small and medium firms are Amcor White Cap Asia, Delicious Food, Escaba Food, Erlybelles Food, First Choice Food, FitgloCorp, F&M Foods, Frescano Food, Fresh-Baked Products, Garanfood, Glomus Gourmet, LG Foods, Leslie Corp, LIIP Food Processing, Lorenzana Food, Portion Fillers, Philfoods, Renaissance Foods, Royal Cargo, SL Agritech, Soriano Dairy Farm, Sugoku Foods, Sun Valley Food, 3J Foods and Tropicana Food.
The swine breeders include: Agoncillo Farm, Creek View Farm, Holiday Hills Farm, Infarmco.
Scorecard: Over 60
BATANGAS
Batangas has a population of about 2.6 million. It is the second-largest producer of hogs after Bulacan (6.5% of national production). It is also the fifth-leading supplier of chicken, and the largest producer of chicken eggs. It had the third-largest output of dressed chicken, 28 million out of 481 million in 2013. It also slaughtered some 270,000 hogs during the year.
The province ranks fourth in aquaculture products centered in Taal Lake. It is the second-biggest producer of tilapia after Pampanga.
Batangas hosts leading firms in food processing such as Asia Bestfood, Balayan Sugar Mill, Bounty Agro Venture, Central Azucarera Don Pedro, CDO Foodsphere, General Milling, Minola Refining, Nestle (two plants), San Miguel Mills (flour), and Uni-President Foods.
The swine breeder farms include: Luz Farm, Mikaela Farm and Ramos Farm.
The province is also home to big farms like Family Hog Farms, Robina Farms, Batangas Dairy Coop, Batangas Egg producer Coop, Soro Soro Ibaba Coop (SIDCI), Pilipinas Kaneko Seeds, Milk Joy Corp, and Tarnate Dairy. It also has feed companies which include Banner Development, Blue Diamond Feed Mills, Lincoma Producer Coop, Nutrimeal Agribusiness, Tower Feeds.
Batangas is also the base of logistics provider San Miguel Golden Bay Grain Terminal.
Scorecard: Over 30
Rolando T. Dy is chair of the MAP AgriBusiness and Countryside Development Committee, and the executive director of the Center for Food and AgriBusiness of the University of Asia & the Pacific.