May 31, 2013

Reymundo Castro, senior vice president and provincial lending head of the Ayala-led bank, said its new loan programme - BPI Agribusiness Solutions - would focus on giving poultry and swine producers more access to capital to upgrade their farms or production facilities.

 

"We want to provide credit facilities to these producers, [so they could] position themselves better in the export [market], especially that the Philippines is expected to take a strong lead in [the] livestock [industry] because our country has been able to prevent the entry of the avian flu and foot-and-mouth disease," Castro said at the programme's launch at the Seda Hotel on May 24.

 

He also said BPI expects to beat other banks to become the leading provider of loans in three to four years.

 

Under the programme, the lender would consider existing farms and production facilities as loan applicants, and would extend as much as PHP200 million (US$4.72 million) to a single application, with 60% equity.

 

Perlina I. Padilla, BPI assistant vice president and agribusiness unit head, said interest would still be low at 6%, and applicants may apply for this interest on agreed terms, such as six years for poultry and up to 60 years for swine.

 

According to Padilla, a production level of at least 250 head of sow would be good for the domestic market, while a production level of at least 500 head would be enough as an entry-level figure for the export market.

 

Though BPI has recommended sows to be upgraded, Andrew Bateson of Genus Pig Improvement Co. made it clear that this means encouraging "accelerated natural selection" in improving sow traits, rather than going into genetic modification.

 

The bank said BPI Agribusiness Solutions would like to position itself as a leading loan and capital provider to Filipino livestock producers and help further improve the country's PHP4-billion (US$94.43 million) pork industry so it could stave off heavy competition once the ASEAN single market is put in place in 2015.

 

Castro said the new programme would also cater to non-livestock agribusiness ventures. He added that it would also serve medium-sized businesses that help aggregate the output of Filipino producers to meet their international supply commitments.

 

According to the BPI, the swine industry is the largest agricultural sector in the Philippines after rice. Agriculture has contributed 12.3% or PHP11.9 billion (US$280.93 million) of the country's gross domestic product in 2011. The agricultural labour force is 13 million, or 35% of the country's total labour force of 37 million.