Firm puts down roots in Mindanao to help poor communities

Anflo Management and Investment Corp. is becoming increasingly bullish with its prospects in Mindanao as it set expansion plans that include a P1.2-billion pineapple farm on a “very depressed and impoverished area” in the island.

In a business forum Thursday, Anflo president and CEO Alexander N. Valoria said the company was embarking on new projects across its three main business divisions—agriculture, real estate and industrial.

Valoria said the pineapple farm “gives us additional excitement … as we will be able to significantly uplift the people in these impoverished communities as we have been able to do so in our other recent projects.”

Companies under Anflo produce fresh Cavendish bananas and pineapples for export and for local markets under the brands Fresh Del Monte, Dole, Unifrutti and Farmind.

Anflo’s flagship firm, Tagum Agricultural Development Co., (Tadeco) has the largest contiguous banana plantation in the world, Valora claimed.

In the real estate division, Anflo Group of Companies is involved in developing subdvisions and low-rise residential condominium projects, which includes an 80-hectare residential and commercial center within Panabo City. It is also working with Ayala Land for several projects including mall, hotel and residential developments.

Anflo also owns the most modern container port terminal in the country, the Davao International Container Terminal, located in Panabo City. “Last month, we completed construction of phase 2 of [the terminal] which brought up our container handling capacity to 800,000 [twenty-foot equivalent unit or TEU] per year, completing our P5-billion investment over the last four years in this one project,” Valoria said. Amy R. Remo