One glass at a time: MVP contributes to milk sufficiency

MANILA, Philippines — One step toward food sufficiency. This is how Manuel V. Pangilinan describes his ventures and investments in the agriculture sector.

Two years ago, Pangilinan, popularly known as MVP, said the country must aim for “substantial” independence in food.

“We must feed our people first,” he said in 2022.

And true to his words, his investment arm - the Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) - bought a 51 percent stake in The Laguna Creamery Inc. from the Carmen’s Best Group for nearly P200 million.

In that same year, the MVP group partnered with Israel’s LR Group Ltd. to put up the Metro Pacific Dairy Farms (MPDF) through a 60:40 sharing in favor of the Metro Pacific Group.

The joint venture worth P2 billion aims to put up an integrated dairy farm and processing facility in Bay, Laguna.

The partnership with the Israeli firm did not come as a surprise since Israel is considered to have one of the most advanced dairy productions in the world, producing around 1.6 billion liters of milk per year.

But the twin investments by MVP made shockwaves not just in the dairy industry but in the agriculture sector as a whole.

Why? Dairy is one of, if not the least produced agricultural commodity in the country.

The Philippines imports about 99 percent of its dairy requirements. The country consumes about three million metric tons of dairy products. And local production is only around 28,000 metric tons.

And this fact alone keeps Pangilinan optimistic in his dairy ventures.

“We import more than 90 percent of our dairy products. It is an import substitution and I hope we can get a substantial portion of this import situation,” he said in a recent interview.

“But it will take time because we are really way behind,” he added.

Metro Pacific Agro Ventures, a subsidiary of MPIC, hopes to grow the revenue of its dairy business to P500 million by 2025 and P1 billion by 2027.

Earlier this year, Pangilinan and Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. met to discuss the former’s investments in the agriculture sector that are aimed at contributing to the country’s food security.

And one of the highlights of the meeting was the investments being poured by the MVP group in the dairy industry.

No less than MVP revealed that his investments in the sector are continuing. First, he will buy out Bukidnon Milk Co. to raise the dairy supply for his ice cream venture.

“Sales of our ice cream products have been growing exponentially and we are slowly running out of milk supply from our dairy farm in Bay, Laguna,” Pangilinan said.

“We are buying another dairy farm in Bukidnon to supplement the supply. Maybe we could ship some of the milk to Manila because we want to expand our fresh milk supply and we want to get into yogurt and cheeses,” he added.

Sources privy to the buyout told The STAR that the transaction is estimated to cost at least P700 million. This would make it larger than Pangilinan’s P198 million acquisition of a majority stake in The Laguna Creamery in 2022.

MVP is also planning to buy another dairy farm in Luzon. The transaction is still under discussion.

Nonetheless, he hopes that both deals will be done within the year.

“So we can have a good supply and develop our distributors and supply chain.”

For Ceferino Rodolfo, the managing head of the Board of Investments (BOI), investments made by tycoons like Pangilinan boost the confidence of prospective investors that the country’s agriculture sector is a viable business venture.

Rodolfo noted the dairy venture of Pangilinan, saying that it has a positive ripple effect in the value chain. For example, he cited the need for more silage production to serve as feedstock of the dairy cows.

The BOI approved earlier the application for registration of MPDF, resulting in the project being entitled to various fiscal and non-fiscal incentives.

The national government aims to boost the country’s milk sufficiency to five percent by 2028.

And toward this goal, Pangilinan contributes one glass of milk or one scoop of ice cream at a time.