Virginia Farms, Inc. president Rolando E. Tambago leads the toast to officially launch Virginia Feeds to its partners.
HIGHLIGHTING the importance of giving the best nutrition for hogs, the biggest farm-to-pork firm in Central Visayas officially unveiled its own line of premium feeds that will be available exclusively to its partner farms.
Virginia Farms, Inc., through its subsidiary Virginia Farmers Solutions (VFS) will now offer nine (9) types of feeds under the brand Virginia Feeds all specially formulated to cater to the specific needs of the hogs at every stage of its development.
Its formulation was developed over 50 years and are proven to result to superior quality pork for the consumers, outstanding performance of its breeders thus promoting higher profitability for the farmers.
“We have been in the swine farming business for over 50 years and through these years, we could say we have formulated the best feeds that will provide optimum nutrition to the hogs at specific stages of its development,” Virginia Farms, Inc. president Rolando E. Tambago said during the launching last February 28, 2020 held at the Radisson Blu Hotel.
While the partner farms under VFS has already been using the feeds provided by Virginia Farms, the move to create a brand will ensure sustained growth of our business while helping our contract partners achieve their dreams.
“The aim really is to give back and also help other farms achieve success because the industry needs to grow and we cannot do it alone. VFS was created in 2017 for that reason, we want to help out small farmers by providing them technical assistance including management, genetics and nutrition and at the same time assure they have a market for their hogs through our retail arm The Pork Shop,” he said.
In that way, he added, that the company can hopefully help grow the industry, help in ensuring food security and eventually contribute more to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) as it helps more small farmers grow and also inspire others to go into the business.
Last year, the Duterte administration recognized the importance of the agricultural industry as a vital economic driver for the country and has realigned its budget to include assistance for the industry.
In an interview with the Philippine Star, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the agriculture sector grew by a mere 0.8 percent in 2018, contributing only 0.1 percentage point, or virtually zero contribution to the overall gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2018.
He added that had the sector grown at its potential of four percent, the full-year economic expansion would have reached 6.5 percent in 2018.
Despite the government’s move to prioritize the industry last year, agriculture only contributed 1.5% in the country’s overall economic growth of 5.9%, a far cry from its projected potential of 4%.
With that, Tambago said there is more work to be done and that little by little they hope to help achieve the government’s target by inspiring and helping more farmers, first in Cebu Province and hopefully across the country.
“As the biggest farm-to-pork business in Central Visayas, we feel that we have that responsibility to help raise the bar in pig farming, and nutrition is very much an important factor for achieving success in pig farming,” he said.
