ANI eyes export of organic veggies

MANILA, Philippines - Publicly-listed AgriNurture, Inc. (ANI) is planning to go into the export of organic vegetables, its chairman and chief executive officer Antonio Tiu said yesterday.

Tiu said ANI has set aside P500 million as part of its capital expenditures for 2010-2011 to finance contract-growing arrangement for organic vegetable.

Tiu said ANI is looking at Singapore, Macau and some parts of China as their first markets. He said they will target foreign markets first where there is a strong acceptance of organic vegetables.

ANI is the first agricultural firm to list at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).

It is even planning to do a P1.5-billion initial public offering.

According to Tiu, ANI’s listing in the local bourse has enabled it to more easily tap funds from the banking system to finance its operations and expansion.

Earlier this year, ANI entered into an agreement with a Saudi Arabian company to put up commercial plantation for pineapple, banana, rice and corn, as well as processing facilities.

ANI is partnering with Far Eastern Agricultural Investment Co. (FEAICO) to establish commercial sized pineapple, banana, rice and corn plantations and processing facilities in the Philippines.

FEAICO would work with ANI for all the needed resources such as land, labor, farm technology and systems.

ANI and FEAICO will establish demo plantations initially and grow gradually, through contract growing up to a core area of 50,000 hectares, pineapple, banana, rice and corn.

The plantations would be used for food crop production for local consumption and for export to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other foreign markets that FEAICO and ANI would jointly agree and develop.

ANI, likewise, is supposedly in talkswith the Wahaha Group of China for afruit juice processing plant.