ANI inks joint venture with Chinese firm to grow high-yield rice in RP

MANILA, Philippines - AgriNurture Inc. (ANI), an all-Filipino agro-commercial company, has signed a joint venture agreement with Heilongjiang Beidahuang, China’s premier agriculture company, to develop a high-yielding rice variety that could help solve the Philippines’ rice shortage problem.

ANI chief executive officer Antonio Tiu said the agreement will allow the two companies to develop and distribute a high yielding rice variety that is resistant to pests and flooding.

Tiu said other rice varieties can produce at most four to five tons of rice per hectare for every planting season, he added. “The rice variety we are developing, … can produce twice… or nine to 10 tons per hectare per season,” he added.

Tiu said “our goal would be to lessen if not erase the country’s dependency on rice importation which can cause frequent and crippling rice shortages.”

The agreement between ANI and Heilongjiang Beidahuang also provides for an initial demonstration farm for the high-yield rice variety in Mabalacat, Pampanga.

The demonstration farm is expected to open by October of this year.

ANI will conduct training and seminars on the high-yield variety for interested farmers and farming partners.

The farm will be supported by various government agencies like the Department of Agriculture as well as academic institutions.

The signing of the joint venture was held Monday night at the Edsa Shangrila Plaza Hotel.

Heilongjiang Beidahuang was represented by its chairman Jiang Zhangqing.

Witnessing the signing ceremonies were Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap; Ambassador William Co, former agriculture attaché to China; ANI officers Elpidio Duca and Alfonso Go; and Beidahuang senior executives.

ANI is a diversified agro-commercial corporation engaged in trading and commercial distribution of agricultural products. It is the country’s top exporter of Philippine carabao mangoes in terms of volume and market coverage.

Founded in 1997 at the height of the Asian financial crisis as Mabuhay 2000, ANI has grown from a small agriculture machinery company to one with a 1,000-strong workforce manning five factories.

ANI implements a “farm-to-plate” business model covering the front and back end of agricultural production. It grows fruits and vegetables.

ANI’s subsidiary, First Class Agriculture, supplies at least 100 tons of high-grade vegetables through its brand Fresh Choice Always to Metro Manila residents through the SM Supermarket and Hypermart chains.

Last May, ANI listed at the PSE by way of introduction.

In January this year, ANI was listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSX) of Australia, an exchange that caters to small and medium-sized companies. ANI is the first Philippine firm to be listed on the NSX.