MPIC seeks to deepen footprint in agricultural sector

MANILA, Philippines — Metro Pacific Agro Ventures Inc. (MPAV), the wholly owned agriculture unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), is looking into coconut and hydroponics as it looks to further deepen its foothold in the agriculture sector.

In an interview with The STAR last week, MPAV president and CEO Jovy Hernandez said the group is focusing on areas where they think the firm can make an impact.

“One is what are those industries if we apply tech and improve the yield in terms of quality and quantity. We also wanted to focus on areas where, actually in reality, where we think the Philippines should be number one,” Hernandez said.

MPAV is looking at the coconut sector. For this industry, MPAV will focus on the higher value products such as coco water and dessicated coconut, the company official said.

“Example is coconut. We used to be the top producer of coconuts. Now we’re number two next to Indonesia. That’s an area we are studying,” Hernandez said.

The country’s coconut production has been declining due to the aging population of trees, thereby lowering yield.

“Our number of nuts per tree is around 50s. In India, the third top producer, they produce 200 per tree,” Hernandez said.

The Philippines’ annual coconut production averages 14 million metric tons (MT). In 2021, the Philippines produced 14.72 million MT of coconut, up 1.5 percent. This is compared to Indonesia’s 17.16 million MT last year.

Coconut oil was also the top agricultural export product in terms of value, earning $1.43 billion last year for shipping 913.36 million MT.

Dessicated coconut is also the top four agricultural export product, with shipments valued at $396.08 million.

Hernandez said MPAV is also looking at investing in hydroponics, the technique of growing plants using a water-based nutrient solution rather than soil.

He said the company is working on the hydroponics project with Israeli company LR Group Ltd., its partner in Metro Pacific Dairy Farms (MPDF).

“We are also looking forward to the inauguration of the next project of the two groups in other sectors such as hydroponics,” Israel’s Ambassador to Philippines Ilan Fluss said last week.

Last week, MPAV and the LR Group broke ground for MPDF, a P2-billion state-of the-art farm facility producing fresh milk and other milk derivatives, addressing a portion of the country’s milk requirements.

The farm facility, under a 60-40 sharing in favor of the MVP group, can produce 6.5 million liters of milk annually. It will have a capacity of up to 2,000 cows, initially having 1,000 cows of which 600 will be milking cows.

Apart from locally produced fresh milk, MPDF will also have processing plant capabilities to produce other milk-derivative products such as low-fat milk, chocolate milk, yogurt, and other popular dairy products for the local market.

The construction of the facility will start in 2023 and take approximately two years to finish, while commercial operation is projected to commence by late 2025 to early 2026.

MPIC first ventured in the agriculture sector last June, with the 51-percent acquisition of The Laguna Creamery Inc. from Carmen’s Best Group for P198 million.

It said its venture into agribusiness affirms its resolve to be the largest catalyst for a sustainable Philippines to contribute to national progress and help improve the lives of Filipinos.

The move is also aligned with the company’s efforts to contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), particularly Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.

MPIC also has holdings in Manila Electric Co., Maynilad Water Services Inc., MetroPac Water Investments Corp., Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings Inc., Light Rail Manila Corp. and mWell PH.