Manuel V. Pangilinan mulls entry into agriculture

MANILA, Philippines — Business tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan is considering investing in the agriculture sector amid soaring prices of commodities that continue to drive higher inflation.

“We would like to focus on the basic commodities that our people need particularly palay, corn, sugar. We are looking at it very seriously,” Pangilinan told reporters on the sidelines of the ASEAN Agriculture Summit on Monday.

Without going into specifics, Pangilinan emphasized the need to focus on the ground itself and not just on the manufacturing side of the sector.

“An emerging item for us is to get into the plantation part of the sector.  That’s where our farmers are located, that’s where they need help both in terms of technology, better varieties, better farming and harvesting methods, and the farm to market supply chain,” Pangilinan said.

Pangilinan, who chairs Metro Pacific Investments Corp., said there is a need to address the farm side of the sugar industry.  He serves as vice chairman of listed sugar and bioenergy company Roxas Holdings Inc.

“We are on the milling side of sugar but given the declining sugar production in the past years, we have to address the farm side of sugar,” he said.

Pangilinan, meanwhile, said they might scrap plans to develop an oil palm plantation as there has been no progress.