How… how… the carabao!

The humble carabao, the Filipino farmer’s beast of burden, can lift the farmer’s financial burdens too. Aside from helping the farmer plow his rice field, the carabao can also give the farmer other lucrative income opportunities.

I came across a 12-year-old press release of the Asian Development Bank on Google about the bank supporting a cooperative of farmers going into the carabao milk business. The ADB story talks of a group of almost 700 farmers supplying carabao milk.

A farmer said he earns enough in a month, rain or shine, from the 10 to 11 liters of milk a day from his two carabaos that he would earn from his one-hectare rice field in a year.

“I don’t have any losses in dairy farming. Even if there is a typhoon, I can still milk my carabao,” the farmer said. He no longer incurs high-interest debt just to get by, and if he needs to borrow money for an emergency, he can pay it back right away with his income from carabao milk.

I took an interest in carabao milk after I came across a local Greek style yogurt brand in the supermarket made from carabao milk. Earlier, I also bought Avocado Magnolia ice cream made from carabao milk.

Three things make me happy buying the carabao milk products: the products taste good, with half the amount of cholesterol in cow’s milk, and I help our farmers who need all the help they can get. Such products are also more reasonably priced than imported yogurt and ice cream from Australia, Europe or the US.

I checked with San Miguel. They also use carabao milk in flavors other than avocado for their Magnolia ice cream. They get their supply from 10 cooperatives from Nueva Ecija and four individual farmers from Bataan and Pampanga. They work with the farmers to assure the highest hygienic milk processing practices.

Apparently, Ramon S. Ang was serious when he once told us San Miguel is developing programs that will integrate farmers into their supply chain. This has made the SMC subsidiaries alert for opportunities like that provided by carabao milk.

And that’s not all. San Miguel is also looking at using their new packaging solution to prolong the shelf life of carabao milk. This is a big help for the government’s nationwide milk feeding program.

San Miguel’s milk packaging allows carabao milk to be sterilized and stored in aluminum cans without using  preservatives. SMC’s “retort technology” packaging extends the shelf life of carabao milk from seven days to six months.

SMC’s packaging unit, San Miguel Yamamura Packaging Corp. (SMYPC), signed an agreement with the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) to pack an initial four million cans of sterilized carabao’s milk, to be distributed in Regions 1 to 3 and parts of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).

SMYPC will act as a third-party toll packer to package carabao milk supplied by local farmer’s cooperatives in Nueva Ecija for the nationwide school-based feeding program under the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

The entry of San Miguel’s packaging will boost demand. Aside from the extended shelf-life, the sterilized canned milk can easily be transported, stored under ambient temperature, and delivered in bulk rather than on a daily basis.

With the technology, more school children will be able to drink nutritious carabao’s milk, particularly those who reside in far-flung, mountainous and hard-to-reach areas, and those with no electricity or limited storage facilities.

The DepEd and DSWD’s feeding program, mandated by Republic Act 11037 or the “Masustansyang Pagkain para sa Batang Pilipino Act”, aims to address the nutritional needs of undernourished children to combat hunger and malnutrition. It serves the undernourished children in public daycare kindergarten and elementary schools from kindergarten up to Grade 6.

With the funding provided by the DepEd and DSWD, PCC will consolidate carabao milk from local dairy farmer cooperatives in Nueva Ecija and deliver these to the SMYPC facility in San Fernando, Pampanga for sterilization and packaging.

From the SMC plant in Pampanga, the sterilized carabao milk will then be delivered to schools division offices (SDOs) for distribution to the undernourished children.  There is also a plan to launch vending machines that dispense carabao dairy products instead of soft drinks.

I think it is also time for the large supermarkets to give the carabao farmers enough shelf space in their stores. I find it frustrating that the Greek style yogurt from DVF dairy farm in Nueva Ecija is not always available in SM and Robinsons supermarkets. Consistency in availability will help develop a loyal following for such products.

Think of what that farmer told ADB: he makes the same amount of money in one month selling milk from his  two carabaos that he would make in a year planting rice in his one-hectare farm.

Drinking carabao milk is healthy for consumers and helps our farmers get out of poverty. So, it’s now hurray hurray for the carabao!

Salt

One comment I received reacting to last Friday’s column on the salt shortage:

“Boo, there’s another problem with respect to iodization. Food manufacturers can’t label their products ‘organic’ if they use iodized salt, which is mandatory to use under Philippine laws.

“This is why Mama Sita and others have been railing against the ASIN Act because they can’t export organic food to other countries.”

No wonder I didn’t find some of the usual packaged Pinoy food products in the Asian supermarkets in Los Angeles during my last visit. One stupid law is costing our food processing industry export sales volume.

There is urgency in repealing or amending the ASIN law to get rid of the unintended consequences to the native salt industry and our food processing industry.

On the lighter side… there was this Twitter post that captures Pinoy humor in our increasingly hopeless food shortage situations:

From Leonard Postrado’s tweet: “Imagine niyo, paano pag ininvade tayo ng aswang. Short na sa bawang, short pa tayo sa asin.”

I guess that’s where Darna comes into the picture just in time.

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco