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ILIGAN CITY, Lanao del Norte—Pilmico Foods Corp. (PFC) opened
Thursday its new feedmill plant in Iligan City to
solidify its presence in southern Philippines and ride
on Mindanao’s plan to export processed pork.
This
early, PFC president Antonio Moraza said the company is
laying the groundwork for expansion in order to double
their production to meet the demands in the Visayas and
Mindanao.
“We
think the Visayas-Mindanao [market] will grow bigger
than Luzon. The area is FMD [foot and mouth disease]
-free and can export to the world. Luzon can’t,” Moraza
told reporters.
“As soon
as the market responds we are ready to pour in another
P150 million to double our capacity in the next six
months.”
The new
feedmill of the Aboitiz Groups’ food arm will take half
the load of its Capas, Tarlac feedmill plant which used
to produce all of the company’s 250,000 metric tons
production daily for nationwide distribution.
The
Iligan feedmill can produce 150,000 metric tons of
feedmill at full capacity. It started production on
September 1, plant manager Eduardo Pacquiao said.
PFC’s
plant is the biggest in Mindanao and is the most modern
in the country, Pacquiao added.
Moraza
added that Iligan City sits on a strategic location to
serve Visayas and Mindanao, while having excellent
access to corn which comes mostly from Bukidnon and
Cotabato. “Shipping feeds from Tarlac is causing us a
fortune. With the Iligan plant we can deliver faster and
on the financial side will save us a lot of money,”
Moraza said.
PFC,
through its subsidiary Fil-Am Foods, gets 8 percent of
the feeds market in the country—already one of the few
biggest players in the vast industry.
The
company produces over 25 feed products under the Elite
brand line of hog feeds. Of this, ninety percent of
their feed production are composed of hog feeds.
Moraza
said Mindanao’s position to export processed meat is
boosted by the presence of major players who have put up
internationally-certified facilities in the island. The
island is eyeing Singapore as its first foreign market. |