San Miguel looking to transfer Monterey inventory, facilities to local raisers

San Miguel Foods (SMF), the food unit of San Miguel Corp. (SMC), is set to transfer its nationwide hog inventory and facilities under the Monterey brand to local raisers, in efforts to boost smallholder farming across the country.

In an emailed statement, SMC said the rationalization will allow local raisers to supply the requirements of their respective regions, as bans on the transportation of pork and pork products remain in place across the country due to the African swine fever (ASF).

"We want to provide our local piggery businesses a chance to thrive in these trying times, and encourage more smallholder farmers to grow this industry locally and responsibly," said SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang.

"This is one way to stabilize the supply of affordable pork in the country. More importantly, it will help boost the local hog raising industry," he added.

According to its company profile, Monterey is the country's largest hog and cattle operator with investments in feed milling, breeding, livestock raising, slaughtering, meat retailing, and meat processing technology.

"They can run this business at a lower cost, making it more sustainable. This also opens the doors for more Filipinos to become agri-entrepreneurs," said Ang.

This comes as vendors on Monday chose to join the pork holiday citing the low price ceiling set by the government — P270 per kilogram for kasim and pigue, P300 for liempo, and P160 for dressed chicken effective February 08.

However, latest data from the DA price monitoring shows that prior to the cap, prevailing prices of pork ham (kasim) were at P350 per kilogram, and pork belly (liempo) at P380 per kilogram as of last Friday, February 05.

The DA earlier blamed the storms in the last quarter of 2020 and the ASF outbreak for the recent spike in prices of agricultural goods such as pork and chicken, among others.

The DA also said it plans to triple the MAV this year to 162,000 metric tons from 54,000 metric tons previously, which has already been approved by President Rodrigo Duterte "in principle.

Shares in SMC opened Tuesday down by P0.90 or 0.70% to P127.90 apiece from Monday's finish of P128.80, while shares in San Miguel Food and Beverage Inc. opened down P0.55 or 0.81% to P67.60 apiece from Monday's finish of P68.15 per share.—AOL, GMA News