San Miguel Corp.’s food unit San Miguel Foods plans to transfer its nationwide hog inventory and facilities to local raisers to allow them to supply the requirements of their respective regions and help strengthen biosecurity practices among smallholder farmers.
“We want to provide our local piggery businesses a chance to thrive in these trying times, and encourage more smallholder farmers to grow this industry locally and responsibly,” said SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang.
The conglomerate said that as bans on the transportation of pork and pork products remained in place across the country because of the African Swine Fever, Monterey, a national player, found the situation challenging, which made it decide to shift gears and transfer inventories to local raisers.
“This is one way to stabilize the supply of affordable pork in the country. More importantly, it will help boost the local hog raising industry. They can run this business at a lower cost, making it more sustainable. This also opens the doors for more Filipinos to become agri-entrepreneurs,” Ang said.