Western Visayas to benefit from DA’s copra meal project

CEBU, Philippines — Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr. has ordered the expansion of the Protein-Enriched Copra Meal (PECM) commercialization project to Central Visayas’ neighboring region, Western Visayas, to boost local livestock production.

The PECM project was initially rolled out in CALABARZON (Regions IV-A) and SOCCSKSARGEN (Region XI) in 2022 as a response to supply disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

The DA noted that the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to disrupt global feed ingredient supply chains, keeping prices for essential commodities like soybean meal, feed wheat, and corn high.

Russia and Ukraine together account for about 30 percent of global feed grain supply, further exacerbating the pressure on feed prices.

According to the DA, the project is designed to mitigate the rising costs of animal feed as this uses copra meal—a by-product of coconut farming—as an affordable substitute for imported soybean meal, which has become increasingly expensive due to global supply chain issues.

PECM was engineered through a solid-state fermentation process, developed by the University of the Philippines-Los Baños’ Biotech Center, which enhances copra meal’s protein content to about 45 percent—comparable to soybean meal.

The enriched copra meal has been successfully incorporated into the diets of finfish and shrimp, with feeding trials showing that including 200 kilos of PECM per ton of finfish feed and 100 kilos per ton of shrimp feed leads to a 3.9 percent and 0.4 percent reduction in feed costs, respectively, compared to conventional commercial feeds.

With this, Laurel then ordered the expansion of the project to Western Visayas.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that only hog production in Western Visayas saw a decline, dropping by 23 percent to 158,471 metric tons, while carabao production increased by 3.9 percent to 17,159 metric tons, cattle production grew by 0.1 percent to 19,007 metric tons as goat production also rose by 11 percent to 7,105 metric tons.

The chicken production in the Western Visayas last year has increased by 4.8 percent to 131,926 metric tons, while chicken egg output rose by 7.9 percent to 40,015 metric tons.

However, duck production has decreased by 1.9 percent to 2,722 metric tons, and duck egg production fell by 5.4 percent to 4,306 metric tons.

By expanding the copra meal initiative, the DA aims to strengthen food security, improve local feed production, and promote more efficient use of agricultural by-products in livestock farming.

Laurel said the expansion of the PECM project in Western Visayas is expected to significantly benefit local farmers and feed producers in the region, who have been grappling with rising prices for traditional feed ingredients.

“The program not only helps reduce feed costs but also supports the local economy by creating new markets for coconut by-products, which are often underutilized,” Laurel said. (CEBU NEWS)