Capitalists visit Cebu’s swine-raising center

CEBU, Philippines — The first swine raising training center in Cebu, the Swinenovation Learning Center,  attracted capitalists to explore oppor-tunities in modern pig farming.

Operated by Excelsior Farms Inc., (EFI) in partnership with Big Dutchman, a global market leader in pig production; Animal feed supplier Cargill, and the London-based Pig Improvement Company (PIC).

The center was visited by 50 members of the Makati-based Anvil Business Club recently to learn more about modern swine farming while the Philippines is still struggling to supply its own pork meat demand.

Launched in October of last year, the center acts as the landing-pad of all latest technologies in pig production in the Philippines.

Anvil Business Club Patrick Cua said the delegation’s visit to the Swinenovation Learning Center is one of their major stops as the members want to learn about swine farming while food production in the country is expected to grow.

“We want to learn about the business and also help in the food security of the Philippines, which is what Excelsior is doing. We want to learn about better food production, better raising of hogs as population continues to grow, thereby the need for a more efficient farming technology,” explained Cua.

Anvil Business Club, formerly known as the Association of Young Filipino-Chinese Entrepreneurs, is an organization of dynamic entrepreneurs and professionals pledged to propagate positive Confucian and Filipino values, and to pursue excellence in their own fields for the economic and social progress in the country.

Supportive of President Rodrigo Duterte’s legacy portfolio—agriculture, most of Anvil members are now looking at modern farming as potential business opportunity in the country.

Because of slow adoption of modern farming technology in the Philippines, production of locally produced meat is outgrown by the local demand, resulting for the Philippines to import at least one-third of the actual demand.

The Philippines consume at least 1.5 billion kilos of pork a year. About 400,000 of the actual pork demand is sourced from other countries like United Kingdom.

“Food security remains to be a top priority for the country and we at EFI can’t do it alone. As we reach our five-year milestone, we hope to inspire more Filipinos to do farming and adopt the best practices that we hope to document, as the years go by, to be able to share with as many Filipinos as we can through the Swinenovation Learning Center,” said EFI president and chief executive officer Paul T. Holaysan.

Located in Brgy. Kasambagan, Cebu City, the free-of-charge modern swine farming learning center is open to students, universities, and industry stakeholders in the local swine industry to avail of the center’s crash courses, which offer different modules in modern swine farming and production.

It covers farm management and production from breeding to harvest, genetic technology, facility design, operation maintenance, feeds and feeding, animal health, and biosecurity. (FREEMAN)