PILMICO FOODS Corp., the food subsidiary of listed Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc., is planning to build a meat cutting facility in Tarlac.
“We’ll set up a meat fabrication facility in Tarlac and also a food storage area in Tarlac,” Pilmico Chief Executive Officer and President Sabin M. Aboitiz told reporters on Friday after signing a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Trade and Industry on the promotion of backyard farming and sustainable livelihood.
For the meat cutting facility, the raw materials will be sourced from Pilmico’s farms as well as local farmers.
The facility, Pilmico’s first in the country, is designed to cut carcasses into standard wholesale and retail cuts. It will have a capacity of cutting 120 heads per hour.
“Basically, we have to connect digitally the farm and the markets. We want to put them in financing and ordering pieces digitally so we can make it at the least cost. Here you can borrow the money, order it and get the delivery,” Mr. Aboitiz said.
The cut meat will be brought to wet markets, as 70% of the country’s meat are still sold in palengkes, not supermarkets and groceries.
Mr. Aboitiz said Pilmico is waiting for the Department of Agrarian Reform’s approval to convert the Tarlac property from agricultural land to industrial. He expects the permit to be issued within six to eight months.
For its feed business operations, Pilmico said it continues to widen its consumer base in member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, particularly Vietnam.
Pilmico International Pte. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc., acquired late last year a 70% stake in feeds company Eurofeed for $3.2 million.
Pilmico International has a 70% stake in Vietnamese aqua feed firm, Vinh Hoan Feeds, a leading supplier of aqua feed in Dong Thap, Vietnam. — Janina C. Lim
