Agribiz firm finds niche in end-to-end solutions

Being able to find and estab-lish one’s market niche in the broad-based poultry and live-stock industry is not that easy to achieve, but a topnotch ag-ribusiness equipment supplier seems to have done it without really trying.

Belmont Agricorp Inc. sim-ply did it by supplying whate-ver the industry needed and just filled up the gaps in the supply loop wherever it could. This philosophy borne out of inno-vativeness and keen business sense has brought the company from end to end of the supply chain all the way to the forefront of the consumer market.

So from bulk grain storage facilities and feedmills to poultry and livestock farms, Belmont’s products can now be found also in the supermarket. In this case, the company isn’t providing big machineries or intricate environmental control systems, but small plastic clips used in supermarkets to seal the poly bags of ready-to-cook meats and other consumables.

Itself an innovation, the plastic clip replaces the metal ones that can end up inside the poly bags and find their way into one’s dinner plate.

Citing the importance of this new brand of plastic clips, Belmont marketing manager Tony Magno said: “More and more people are frequenting the supermarkets. They prefer cut-up products now rather than just carcasses. They want ready-to-cook and ready-to-prepare vegetables, meat and chicken. This is why it’s only fitting to make it a safe environment for them.”

The new product, however, would seem to be a sharp deviation from Belmont’s long list of sophisticated product lines. Yet, the simplicity of the new product graphically illustrates how the company caters to the needs, not just of its immediate or direct clients, but also of the consumers at the farthest end of the chain during all of its 35 years in the business.

In the poultry industry alone, Belmont has constantly spear-headed the distribution of world-class feeders, drinkers, gas brooders, incubators, layer cages, feed delivery systems, conveyors, elevators, chillers, dryers, bagging systems, and other equipment.

More recently, they have focused on another end-to-end business solution by providing comprehensive poultry equip-ment requirements from the hatchery all the way to the dres-sing of the chicken — all are intended to benefit, not only the client in terms of cost efficiency, but also the consumers in terms of the resulting quality of the end-product.

These new developments are well monitored by the Foun-dation for Resource Linkage and Development (FRLD), a non-government organization dedicated to the service of the agribusiness industry and the consumer market.

“Sometimes, it’s not easy to determine whether the emer-ging trend pertains to an industry-driven market or to a market-driven industry because both can happen at the same time. In any case, though, it is the members of the industry – including farmers and small entrepreneurs – who ought to be sensitive to the needs of the market as defined by new evolving lifestyles and the demands of the times,” FRLD president Antonio V. Roces said.

“But whichever is the case, it always presents many new business opportunities and more rooms for the expansion of both demand and supply chains, and thus the need for more productive and lucrative alliances. This strong market sense is well manifested by Belmont,” Roces pointed out.

Belmont is among the hundreds of local and foreign companies and thousands of visitors who will see action at this year’s Agrilink, Foodlink and Aqualink, the country’s biggest, longest-running and most prestigious annual inter-national trade show on agribusiness, food and aquaculture.

The event, slated at the World Trade Center Metro Manila on Oct. 4-6, features the world’s latest agribusiness products, services, technologies and the many business oppor-tunities from value-adding and forming industry alliances, whether locally or abroad, or both. More information can be obtained from the FRLD (tel. 8384549, 8384852; fax 8384573; or email [email protected]).