DELGADO BROTHERS (Delbros) Group said it hopes to double its fleet of Cane Express (CaneX) line of farming machinery through a P90-million investment for the next two years.

“For the next two years, the company is looking to doubling its current fleet of 15 harvesters and seven loaders by committing over P90 million in equipment and personnel investment,” Delbros Group Managing Director Jose Paolo L. Delgado told BusinessWorld in an email interview.

He said that the company is also looking to serve 1,500 hectares of land this season to help address two of the main challenges in the sugar industry, which are high production costs and inadequate financial capacity.

Delbros, a logistics and agriculture company working with sugar planters, associations and mills, is helping modernize production. It established CaneX in 2014, its sugarcane farm solutions unit.

Designed for Philippine climate and field conditions, CaneX trucks can haul three to four times a day against traditional equipment, which can manage two trips per day. Mechanized harvesters can cut 1.2 hectares per day, reducing the manpower commitment requiring 10 people per hectare over three to four days using traditional methods. The Delbros equipment also cuts loading time to 50 minutes, as against three to four hours for manual loading.

The company promises a 90% faster harvest and is currently developing equipment that can be used by small, block farmers with up to five hectares.

Investment in such equipment starts at about P1.5 million a unit.

“Farmers can focus on growing crops as best as they can, and for sugar mills to get the freshest sugarcane. This new technology can help lower production and labor costs as well as help farmers properly assess competitive prices for their products,” he said.

There are currently 30 farmers across Negros, Bukidnon, Cavite, and Batangas using CaneX equipment, which is either sold or leased.

“Overall, Delbros Group is committed to modernizing agriculture and helping farmers produce more with their limited resources through the use of innovative CaneX farming technology,” Mr. Delgado said.

“As one of the country’s pioneers in agriculture and logistics, Delbros has over 4,000 trucks, trailers, harvesters, loaders and containers deployed nationwide, mowing cargo, produce, and fresh food,” he added. — Vincent Mariel P. Galang

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