BOI gives green light to Php195.5-M investment
The Board of Investments (BOI) has given a thumbs up to the application for registration of Agro Azienda Inc., a new producer of broiler chicken in Maragondon, Cavite.
Listed in the sector of “Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry” of the 2020 Investment Priorities Plan (IPP) as the transitional Strategic Investment Priority Plan (SIPP) of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises” (CREATE) Act, the broiler chicken producer is projected to start commercial operations in May 2022.
The firm has a capacity of 2,310,000 birds per year, and has acquired brand new equipment to be installed in the facility. The firm will employ 10 direct workers. The potential direct employment to be generated by the firm based on the employment multiplier is estimated at 109 workers. The firm also built fly management control system including tunnel vent building design, dry manure, and insecticide fly trap.
Serving as an essential support to meat processing industry, the project is a commercial production of Broiler Chicken on a contract growing scheme with a big local company.
Broiler farming is the process wherein broiler chickens are reared and prepared for meat processing and/or final consumption. Proper nutrition to birds and utilization of modern technology coupled with good farming practice is crucial to improving meat quality and increasing farm productivity that in turn, will contribute to increased national production of chicken or poultry.
Primarily, the project will contribute to the achievement of one of the targets of the updated 2017-2022 Philippine Development Plan (PDP) to increase the volume production of chicken to 1,956,300 metric tons (MT) by 2022. The entry of the project can supply 3,696 MT of chicken accounting for 0.19 percent and 0.20 percent of the PDP target and the BOI production forecast for 2022, respectively.
To lessen the disruptive ramifications of natural calamities, Agro Azienda Inc. will conduct regular awareness, education, preparedness and warning system. Amid the pandemic, Agro Azienda will pro-actively avert the contagion of the coronavirus through strictly enforcing its in-house health and safety protocols aligned with the policies of the government and medical agencies.
Additionally, the project will shore up the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Plant, Plant, Plant Program or Ahon Lahat and Pagkaing Sapat (ALPAS) Kontra Covid-19 with two components, namely: Integrated Livestock and Corn Resiliency Project and the Expanded Small Ruminants and Poultry Project to ensure the uptick in the production of meat, chicken and eggs and manage the impact of the present global health crisis in domestic food supply.
Known as the second most consumed meat type after pork based on the Supply Utilization Accounts of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), poultry meat is viewed as one of the basic commodities of Filipinos. Also, Filipinos rely on pork, chicken and eggs to support around 34.28 grams of protein per day, whereas the recommended protein intake for Filipinos is about 49 to 67 grams per day.
With increasing per capita income, demand for meat such as chicken has seen significant spike at least in the previous decade. According to the PSA, the Philippine chicken production in 2020 was at 1.8 million MT, and the industry grew by two percent on average from 2016-2020. For 2022, the estimated chicken production is 1,882,971 MT.
CALABARZON, the region where the project is located, was ranked as the biggest contributor to chicken production at 35 percent and grew by an average of two percent from 2016 to 2020. Other top four contributor-regions were Central Luzon with 18 percent, followed by Northern Mindanao at nine percent, and Western Visayas and Central Visayas with both six percent.
In 2019, chicken overtook pork as a more preferred protein source. The Philippine chicken industry is forecasted by USDA to continue to surge production by 10 percent in the next few years because of the decline in pork production due to African Swine Fever. #
