MPIC eyes protein segment in agribusiness

Conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) intends to fortify its agribusiness as it looks to further diversify its portfolio by venturing into the protein segment.

“We continuously want to look at areas where we can implement technology that will increase yield. We want to enter the protein segment because part of our core strategy is to look at the Filipino plate. We want to take a look at the protein segment which would either be meat, eggs or aquaculture,” Metro Pacific Agro Ventures (MPAV) president and CEO Juan Victor Hernandez said.

“All of those are very interesting. To be frank, for meat, we are kind of cautious because of ASF (African swine fever) in terms of pork. For chicken, there’s avian flu. But for eggs, that’s a very interesting area that we would take a look at so we’re looking at that,” he said.

Hernandez said the group is also exploring ways to further utilize carabaos.

“We like to look at carabaos because we have a lot of carabaos in the Philippines. It’s a quintessential symbol of agriculture. But we only use it for tilling the land,” Hernandez said.