METRO Pacific Agro Ventures (MPAV) is looking to expand its business to include protein while also expanding its dairy offering.
The agriculture venture of conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp.is looking at egg production and carabao milk as it works to bring its other businesses to profitability, according to Juan Victor Hernandez, MPAV president.
“Protein could either be meat, eggs or aquaculture. All of those are very interesting. (But) to be frank, with meat, we’re kind of cautious because of the ASF (African swine fever) in terms of pork. For chicken, there’s the Avian flu. But for eggs, that’s a very interesting area. So we’re looking at that,” Hernandez said, noting that the two areas complement the company’s core strategy of looking at the “Filipino plate.”
As for carabao milk, Hernandez said it will be a big boost to local farmers while giving MPAV other sources for its materials to process cheese.
“There are many carabaos in the Philippines, (the carabao) is the quintessential symbol of agriculture. But we only use it for tilling the land. In other countries, they actually milk the carabao. So if I can get, for example, two liters from every farmer, that’s extra income for the farmer that I can process the cheese from,” he said.
Hernandez said the agri venture is now “doing well” from a revenue standpoint, with all metrics up.
“We’re now working on our EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) and core income. If we look at the different components, we’re happy to announce on the ice cream side, we’re already positive EBITDA and making net income on ice cream. We have to work on the dairy side because that’s also lower margin from a business perspective. We’re able to grow the volumes there. We’re confident we’ll be able to have positive EBITDA by next year as a total dairy business,” he said.
Hernandez said MPAV expects to be self-sufficient in terms of milk supply by 2026 with the acquisition of Mindanao-based Universal Harvester Dairy Farms Inc., or the Bukidnon Milk Company, while addressing the dairy and ice cream needs of Visayas and Mindanao.
“…Bukidnon Milk Company in Maramag (has) a herd of 1,000 (cows) … 200 of which is (for milking). So that will immediately add to the pool of milk supply that is required by the company to further grow. They have about close to 300 heifers, young cows that can enter the milking pool,” he said.
“They are very complementary to our existing dairy business in Laguna. They don’t have an ice cream business. We do. So, that automatically gives us the opportunity to produce ice cream in Mindanao and distribute in Visayas and Mindanao, which is more efficient from a cost perspective,” Hernandez added.
MPAV is beefing up the capacity of the dairy of Carmen’s Best (Laguna Creamery) and is preparing for the commercial operation of the country’s largest integrated dairy facility in Bay, Laguna through a joint venture with the LR Group of Israel.
“We’ve reached 140 milking cows in Laguna. Before, it was, on average, about 95 or 97.
We never broke the 100-mark. But because of the investments that we’ve done in Laguna Creamery, by the end of July, we already have 140 and growing,” Hernandez said.
“Our target for December is (to) achieve 200 milking cows in Laguna, which… will double production of ice cream,” he added.
Once the Laguna facility goes online by the first quarter of 2025, MPAV will achieve “dairy self-sufficiency” by 2026, noted Hernandez.
With this, Hernandez said the company “will now start the growth path for the dairy line” by diversifying into fresh milk.
“We want that to be as big as the ice cream business,” he added.
MPAV is also working to expand its 3.5-hectare, 800- metric ton annual output vegetable greenhouse in San Rafael, Bulacan, set to start commercial operation by January.
“We’ve been given instructions already next year that the three and a half will double to seven (hectares, which) is the original plan to produce 1,600 metric tons of vegetables,” he said.
