Pilmico Foods Corp., a wholly-owned food manufacturing unit of Aboitiz Equity Ventures, disclosed a plant to put up an integrated meat fabrication plant in Tarlac province.
Pilmico president Sabin Aboitiz said the project would be a part of the company’s P9-billion expansion strategy until 2020 that would also include feeds and grains processing expansion.
“We are setting up a meat fabrication plant and a cold storage area. To build the plant, we need to convert the land we bought from agriculture into industrial use. We’re just waiting for the land conversion permit from the Agrarian Reform Department,” Aboitiz said over the weekend.
The company procured all the equipment for the plant whose construction could start six to eight months after the permit was approved and released.
Aboitiz said the plant would serve the company’s digital strategy, where connection from the farm to the plant and, ultimately, to the wet market would be transacted using the internet.
Buyers, he said, could actually bid real time on the platform, for meat cuts of choice or specification. Payment would be done using the platform.
“From the farms, we move up to fabrication integrating system. By using the digital platform, the cost will be a tad cheaper. That benefit trickles down to end-users or consumers,” Aboitiz said.
The plant is expected to process 120 hog heads per hour. The plant will source live animals from Aboitiz farms. Small holder farmers are also encouraged to sell their animals to the company and go to the platform.
“We want to make sure the digital platform is responsive to the needs of the industry for it to grow,” Aboitiz said.
The Tarlac plant would be the second meat fabrication facility of the company after it opened the first plant in Butuan City.
AEV recently signed a partnership agreement with the Trade Department to support backyard farming and sustainable livelihood under Pilmico’s advocacy program ‘Mahalin Pagkain Natin.”
The agreement established Pilmico as the department’s partner in the implementation of the Go Negosyo Act to increase Filipinos’ participation in entrepreneurship programs.
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said the department was willing to allow Pilmico to gain access to the more than 800 Go Negosyo centers across the country to train new and aspiring Filipino entrepreneurs.
“What is good is that there is technology transfer. The training will help enrich the knowledge and skills of our entrepreneurs,” he said.
Lopez also expressed interest to enlist Pilmico to help the people of Marawi set up bakeries and backyard poultry enterprises.