Virginia Farms, Inc. President Rolando E. Tambago (seated right) and LMPC General Manager Ellen Limocon (seated left) seals the livelihood partnership on January 13, 2021 at LMPC Headquarters in Pinamungajan, Cebu.
Answering the government’s call to boost the agricultural industry in the country, Virginia Farms Inc. (Virginia Farms) signed last January 13, Wednesday, a partnership with Lamac Multi-Purpose Cooperative (LMPC) for a buy-back scheme that will benefit members of the cooperative who are into hog farming.
Through the partnership, Virginia Farms will supply LMPC with feeds through their Virginia Feeds brand and will also buy the farmers’ hogs upon harvest at a guaranteed price which will also ensure huge profit for every farmer.
Being one of the beneficiaries of the Department of Agriculture for their livelihood assistance program to farmers across the country, LMPC was awarded at least P20 million in funds that they can lend to their members who are already engaged in any agriculture-related livelihood or those who wants to start one.
LMPC General Manager Ellen Limocon said that they decided to partner with Virginia Farms, specifically for the hogs farming, because they find Virginia Farms’ business model as sustainable.
(Read Related Article: VFI launches livelihood program for Lamac cooperative members)
“We have a lot of farmers who are already into hog raising now and often times they always struggle when selling their hogs and with our buy-back partnership with Virginia Farms, having the direct access to the market because of their retail arm The Pork Shop, we have found a sustainable arrangement for our members,” said Limocon.
LMPC currently has over 100,000 members with 29 statellite offices in Cebu. Limocon said that they will offer loans with only 3% service fee to their members who will be availing of this partnership.
Virginia Farms officially launched their buy-back program in February last year when they launched their feeds brand Virginia Feeds, through its Virginia Farmers Solution (VFS) division.
(Read Related Article: Cebu cooperative partners with pork producer to help its livelihood program)
“This division (VFS) was born out of our aim to really provide help to the hog farmers, first here in Cebu then eventually throughout the country, get access to the latest in hog farming from genetics, nutrition and management,” VFI president Rolando E. Tambago said.
Aside from the quality feeds, partner farmers will get access to technical support through training and PIG-skwela on Wheels as well as access to the latest swine genetics that will ensure higher productivity and best quality meat.
Tambago encouraged the stakeholders of LMPC to avail of this sustainable program adding that they project a favorable market environment for pork this year, especially for Visayas players who remain free of the African Swine Fever, thus may absorb most of the demand for pork in the country.
In an article published in The Pig Site, the Philippines is the world’s tenth-largest consumer, eighth-top producer and seventh-largest importer of pork adding that every Filipino consumes about 35 kilograms of meat yearly, including an average of 15 kilograms of pork.
The United States Department of Agriculture also recently reported that the domestic consumption this year is also seen to improve to 1.549 million MT, up 8 percent from 2020.
