NDA, Metro Pacific set up multiplier farm

The National Dairy Authority (NDA) and Metro Pacific Agro Ventures Inc. (MPAV) are working together on two initiatives to strengthen the local milk industry.

The first undertaking involves the NDA linking MPAV—which is part of the conglomerate led by tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan—to local producers for supply of fresh milk.

The second one entails the joint management of a multiplier farm that will produce and disperse dairy animal offspring.

Both parties have yet to flesh out the details for purchasing milk from local producers but the NDA said MPAV has been buying milk already from NDA-assisted cooperatives in Batangas and Quezon for the latter’s The Laguna Creamery Inc. (TLCI).

READ: Local milk producers thirsty for gov’t support

MPAV, the agriculture business of Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corp., acquired a 51-percent stake in the Magsaysay family’s ice cream maker TLCI, known for the popular Carmen’s Best brand, for about P200 million.

The multiplier farm that will be comanaged by the NDA and MPAV will primarily focus on breeding animals for distribution to farmers and produce milk.

“Metro Pacific is interested [in the] multiplier farm concept because it produces milk and it increases the herd,” the NDA said in a message.

NDA Administrator Marcus Antonius Andaya explained that imported cattle would be acclimatized at stock farms before their offspring are distributed to multiplier farms and eventually to farmer-beneficiaries.

The agency has five stock farms in its pipeline in the following key locations—General Tinio in Nueva Ecija, Ubay in Bohol, Malaybalay in Bukidnon, Carmen in Cotabato, and Prosperidad in Agusan del Sur.