Pilmico sets P9-B capex for 3 yrs

Pilmico Foods Corp., the food subsidiary of Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., has earmarked about P9 billion for capital expenditure (capex) in the next three years to support expansion plans, a top company official said.

Pilmico CEO Sabin Aboitiz said on the sidelines of a press conference on Friday that the amount would be used partly to expand the capacity of the firm’s feed mills in Tarlac and Iligan.

Aboitiz said Pilmico farms would also be expanded.

He said that each mill, which individually has a capacity of 60 tons per hour (TPH), would be beefed up to raise the capacity by 20 TPH in the next two years.

Moreover, he said the company had been preparing to introduce a digital strategy in their operations, which would allow farmers to order products online.

This came as the Aboitiz subsidiary partnered on Friday with the Department of Trade and Industry to expand its network and further develop the entrepreneurship skills of backyard farmers.

In the meantime, he said Pilmico was still waiting for a permit from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to convert an agricultural land in Tarlac for industrial use.

This would be a meat fabrication plant, which would have a capacity of 120 swine heads per hour, he noted.

The meat fabrication plant will be equipped with a cold storage facility.

He deferred from disclosing further details of the digital strategy. In a nutshell, he said they wanted “to connect the farms and the [wet] markets.”

Pilmico currently distributes Aqua Feeds in the Vietnamese market. He said they were planning to reach more countries in Southeast Asia through Vietnam.

He said the company was eyeing to expand to Thailand and Cambodia through Vietnam.