(original poultry image[1] from The Big Book Project)
We are in Barangay Sabang, San Jose, Batangas,
at the LMV Farm. We are with the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) listening
to ACPC interviewer Karlo Abarquez
talking with Cecille Aldueza, wife of Leo Marvin Virtucio (LMV); I translate & pick freely
from the Taglish exchange.
Ms Cecille says of her husband: “He is the full-fledged egg farmer. I cover
Finance and Marketing as well as Product Development.”
Around 2012, we started with a small poultry near our house in Lumil. We
were based in Makati while developing a farm here in Barangay Sabang. Right now
we have 3 buildings.
They settled in San
Jose in 2016 to manage their agribusiness full-time.
What we wanted to do was look for bigger markets. We are still small. We
are not even 50,000 layers; you compare that with the total bird population in
our town of 12 million.
They have 3
buildings, 1 business to take care of carefully. Family affair.
One family takes care of one building. We have a Farm Manager. In the
afternoon, we must know how many eggs laid, how much feeds consumed, how many
birds died if any. We must see if a building has income or none.
They supply eggs to Metro Manila.
Since 2020, we have been supporting the project of the Department of
Agriculture called “Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita.” We have to bring our produce to the
National Capital Region.
For management, they converted one garage
beside their house into the “Kadiwa Egg Terminal.”
Barangay Lumil is where we have the setup. We have a biosecurity post so
that everything that comes in is checked and monitored.
Economically lost to the lockdown the markets
of Mimaropa, the Visayas and Mindanao, they looked elsewhere. “Now, it’s timing
that Metro Manila needs food supplies.”
We assisted the small poultry raisers; we bought from them; we picked up
the eggs, and consolidated them before delivery.
“How does LMV Farm treat its laborers?”
We treat them as family. One building, one family takes care of the
operations. Aside from generating jobs for farmworkers, we hire people as crew,
sorters of eggs, deliverers of eggs, and we help resellers. That’s how we
create livelihoods for many.
It’s all digital:
Because I finished Accountancy and Information Management, I am doing everything digital. I train
my workers using their cellphone to encode or text production numbers so we can
immediately see.
Borrowed P4
million from ACPC, zero interest. We may add that it would be nicer if the ACPC
can implement bigger-scale loans. With the help of successful agri-preneurs,
ACPC can teach us to stand on our own feet. It is important that we learn how
to help ourselves – and then to help each other.
To
that, “Amen” I say!@517
[1]https://thebigbookproject.org/agri/poultry-farming/how-to-start-a-poultry-farm-business-in-the-philippines/
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