MVP group eyes Davao for palm oil production

MANILA, Philippines – Business tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan (MVP) said his group is looking at a 30,000-hectare farm land in Davao Oriental as a possible agricultural site for palm oil production.

Pangilinan, managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd, said the conglomerate’s agribusiness subsidiary PT Indofood has already sent a team to Davao Oriental to assess the prospective development areas.

“We’re still waiting for the assessment of Indofood with regards to a potential palm oil plantation,” he said during the Philex Petroleum Corporation annual stockholders meeting on Tuesday, May 21.

He added assessment results and development updates will likely be available next week.

“The land area (in Davao Oriental) is large in Philippine standards but not in global standards,” Pangilinan said.

Indofood’s plantation in Indonesia is considered to be the 3rd largest palm oil producer in the world, reaching around 240,00 hectares.

Aside from the plantation area, the group is also planning to put up an integrated palm oil production chain to produce finished products intended to be sold both here and abroad.

“We will not only build a plantation but also factories for palm oil production. We are looking to sell these domestically and for exports,” he said.

Typhoon effects

Pangilinan said the group is now more interested in cultivating and producing palm oil due to the resiliency of palm trees to typhoons.

Initially, the group was also eyeing other agricultural crops for cultivation, including sugar, rubber, coffee, cocoa and banana, among others.

In December 2012, Typhoon Pablo (international codename: Bopha) ravaged over 50,096 hectares of banana plantations in Mindanao, translating to losses reaching P22.23 billion for about two million metric tons of bananas.

“Bananas are attractive to us because it is a commodity in which the Philippines has some degree of influence on the prices… But I’m worried recently with the typhoons hitting the eastern seaboard of Mindanao, we are concerned as to the impact on the industry (on the losses). Palm trees are more sturdy,” he said.

PT Indofood is the food unit of First Pacific Co. Ltd., which has shares in Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and Philex Mining Corp. – Rappler.com