MANILA, Philippines — The Board of Investments has approved the facilities expansion projects of a poultry dressing company and a roasted cashew nuts exports producer.
In a statement, the BOI said it approved the P78.3 million project of 557 Feather Meal Corp as an expanding producer of poultry dressing with cold storage facility under the 2017 Investment Priorities Plan (IPP).
“The project qualified for incentives under the Preferred Activities Category under the Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry Listing which covers production of seeds and support services and infrastructure such as facilities for drying, cold chain storage, blast freezing, slaughterhouse, Class AAA dressing plant,” the BOI said.
According to the BOI, the project involves additional facility for poultry dressing with processing plant and cold storage services to its existing plant in Concepcion, Tarlac.
The expansion will increase the company’s annual production capacity by 63 percent. This means an additional 12.48 million birds will be processed annually, in addition to the existing 19.968 million a year.
Commercial operations of the expanded facility began in June 2017 with an additional 460 personnel on board, the BOI reported.
The facility exclusively serves the poultry dressing and further processing requirements of San Miguel Foods Inc. (SMFI). It receives live birds from the poultry growing farmers of SMFI located in Tarlac and nearby provinces.
“This expansion will address the chicken meat requirements of Central Luzon considering its growing demand,” said Trade Undersecretary and BOI managing head Ceferino Rodolfo.
The BOI also approved the application of R-Ley Trading as an expanding export producer of roasted cashew nuts.
The Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) participant qualified under the under the export activities category of the 2017 IPP.
“The P7.87 million project in Roxas, Palawan is also considered an expansion/modernization project since it involves the installation of additional facilities or equipment that would result in the increase of capacity of the said activity within the existing plant of the enterprise,” the BOI said.
At present, the company is a major producer and wholesaler/distributor of cashew nuts in Palawan. Its existing operation involves manual splitting and the use of decorticator machine.
“The expansion project involves acquisition of automatic machines to be imported from Vietnam such as, decorticating machine, shelling machine, sorting machine, peeling and packing machines,” the BOI said.