GROUP PICTURE: From left to right. Me, Kobi Kordova (Hapack Israel), Lieven Waerenburgh (Roxell), Amarin Zaet (Hapack Israel), Phillip Alleman (Roxell), Kiram Zait (Hapack Israel), Maksim Pozoniakov (Agroinzineria Lithuania), James Monksfield (PJ Fenning England), Jerry Monksfield (PJ Fenning England), Hugo Schoonaert (Roxell), Elmar Roineberg (Taramatic Norway), Roar Skau (Taramatic Norway) and Philip Fenning (PJ Fenning England).

Engineer Romeo Mabaquiao, head of Bitrade’s Special Projects Group, was sent on a training tour of supplier facilities in Belgium and Spain. His trip was part of a continuing program to upgrade the knowledge and skills of Bitrade personnel in the installation, maintenance and technologies of the company’s foreign suppliers.

Following are random entries in Romy’s training calendar.

Plant Visit (Roxell Feed bin Production Area)

The workshop was hosted and presented by Roxell’s Poultry/Piggery Technical group headed by Engr. Hugo Schoonaert, Technical Service manager. It was a very informative workshop, not only because of the PowerPoint slides presentation but also because of the open technical discussion, actual demonstration of Roxell products and a tour on their plant production area. I learned many new things and techniques, gained insights into their working attitudes and personal discipline on the Expert Days, things that can be adapted to our working environment.

It was a pleasure being warmly welcomed by Roxell officers and staff after Lieven Waerenburgh (Service Engineer) introduced me to the whole group. I met Paul Vanderhaeghe (Marketing Communications Manager), Frank Hartman (Marketing Manager) and Ms. Marie-Anne Leunis (Marketing Communications Co-operator). In a meeting with Marie-Anne, we managed to tackle the issue of priority delivery of our order within 2 1/2 months instead of the usual 6 months of order processing, from their receipt of orders to the arrival of goods on site.

TECHNICAL MEETING: From left to right. Me, Jesus Benito (Exafan Mechanical Engineer), Daniel Romero (Exafan Civil Engineer)

Manuel allotted his full time to me during my entire stay in Spain. We visited a lot of farms that have turnkey project with Exafan. All these farms were impressive, neat and well-organized. They use less power and have higher efficiency in terms of production – things we can adopt in our own operations.

8,000 head Nursery Pig farm (1 Building 18m x 180m)

180,000 bird Broiler farm (9 Buildings 12m x 100m)

4,000 head G/F Pig farm (2 Buildings of 15m x 120m)

A local company, in partnership with Dutch firms and their government, will soon make its mark in upgrading the quality of Philippine-bred hogs through artificial insemination (AI).

The company, Europhil Swine Genetics, Inc. or Europhil, is a joint creation of the Dutch government and Dutch companies Van Gennip (an AI center) and MS Schippers (a supplier of AI equipment and consumables).

Europhil, whose modern boar farm and semen collection and processing center in Barrio Sto. Niño, Ibaan Batangas was inaugurated Sept. 1, 2011, will provide high quality boar semen to hog raisers. It will cater primarily to the needs of small hog raisers and hog production cooperatives. It will also serve as a training facility on AI technology for technicians, hog farm owners and personnel, and other industry practitioners.

Project relevance
The joint venture is relevant to the times, considering the growing requirement for food security and production sustainability to support the world’s growing population.

According to the United Nations’ annual World Economic and Social Survey results released on July 5, 2011, global food production will have to increase 70 to 100 per cent by 2050 to feed the world’s predicted 9 billion people. That increase is only possible if more sustainable food production and farming methods are used.

The situation is more pressing and urgent in the country. The same problem of food production sustainability becomes a major concern as our population grows at an average rate of 2.0 per cent per annum. At this high annual population growth rate, the country would have 100 million people to feed in the next couple of years.

Pork is a major component of the Filipino diet, with the average citizen consuming 14 kilograms of pork per year. Given the country’s high population growth rate, urbanization and improving income levels, the demand for pork and other foodstuff is expected to dramatically increase at an even faster clip than the world food demand. The country needs to improve the quality and quantity of the pork it produces to keep up with, if not to outstrip, the demand for it.

Today, small hog raisers suffer from increasing cost of farm inputs, unreliable supply of these inputs, and limited availability of good quality genetic materials, hog diseases, and heavy reliance on traders to sell their produce. Because they generally have small capital to work with, they move in and out of the hog market easily and more frequently than commercial growers do – usually moving out when they perceive the market situation to be unfavorable. Despite their small operations, small farmers affect the overall hog supply because of their aggregate contribution to the total hog production.

Small and medium-size hog farms as beneficiaries
This joint venture should benefit the small to medium-size hog farmers as they constitute the majority of pork producers in terms of absolute number. They contribute 70 per cent of the annual hog production in the country estimated at 1.9 million metric tons. Improving the quality of their animals through genetics using quality semen from the Europhil farm will boost their confidence, production and earning capabilities. Through reliable AI using quality Europhil semen, they can make their hog farm operations profitable and sustainable at the same time.

One of the major reasons why Europhil was set up is to help the small to medium-size farmers improve not only their production but also their stocks to make their operations worth their time and investments. Eventually, they can help the industry produce more pork of higher quality – and pass on the benefits to the consumers.

Philippine Poultry Show

Fresh from its successful participation in the Sept. 8-10, 2011 Philippine Poultry Show and Gamefowl Congress at the SM Megatrade Hall, Bitrade will again be an active exhibitor and participant in the forthcoming 18th International Agribusiness Exhibition and Seminars (Agrilink). Agrilink, whose theme this year is “Integration: Key to Sustainable Agriculture”, will be held from October 6-8, 2011 at the World Trade Center in Manila.

“We expect to generate greater interest in our total farm solutions, primarily for the poultry and hog industries, especially those who are contemplating on investing in sustainable agricultural ventures,” says Bitrade Managing Director Ernesto L. Rodriguez. “We intend to do this by showcasing leading-edge technologies and applications that could benefit their poultry and hog businesses. We did this when we participated in the poultry show at SM Megatrade Hall. This time around, we will show a lot more and provide greater emphasis on the hog industry, without necessarily downplaying our innovative solutions in the poultry industry. Watch for our bigger exhibits in the bigger venue of Agrilink.”

Bitrade was one of the more than a hundred companies that participated in the poultry show, where it also held a seminar on the use of climate control systems for greater farm productivity and efficiency.

In Agrilink, Bitrade will be with the indoor exhibitors at World Trade Center’s halls A, B and C. The company expects to reach more of its customers and prospects at Agrilink in an effort to boost food productivity in the country.

Nuklospray Yoghurt

Hotel Vida venue

Club Filipino venue

Mr. André Damveld

Northwest Basic Commodities Corporation has successfully launched Nuklospray Yoghurt, a new product from Sloten B.V. from the Netherlands. The launch was held on June 22, 2011 at Hotel Vida, Clark, Pampanga, and on June 23, 2011 at Club Filipino, Greenhills, San Juan.

A representative from Sloten B.V., Mr. André Damveld, Nuklospray Product Manager, delivered a presentation on pre-weaning feeding strategy. His presentation stressed the importance of Nuklospray Yoghurt during the first 14 days of a piglet’s life, and the subsequent beneficial effects of good feeding strategy.

For more information, please contact NBCC at (632) 727-3903 to 05, or email us at nbcc@infarmco.com.

INAHGEN 2008 is the Philippines’ largest and most prestigious agribusiness exhibition and was participated in by livestock and poultry industry leaders from the Philippines and from around the world. A total of 171 local and foreign exhibitors participated while more than 10,000 visitors attended the trade show.

The trade show showcased the latest trends and innovations particularly in the swine and poultry products, information, services, and equipment. Special focus were on animal health, genetics, and nutrition. invited conference and seminar speakers talked about the latest research findings, commercial results, breeding technologies, medications and other interesting topics. The INFARMCO Group sponsored some seminars during the tradeshow.

This bi-annual event will be held again in the year 2010.

The INFARMCO Landrace and Largewhite and ISGI Duroc boars were consistent winners even in past national performance tests since joining the program in 1996.

All the winning boars were eventually auctioned off during the 24th boar auction under the auspices of the Philippine Swine Industry and Development Foundation, Inc. held on the 28th of February 2008. The boars for auction were selected based on average daily gain, feed conversion, backfat thickness and body conformation. The auction was one of the highlights of the 2nd INAHGEN 2008 (The ASEAN Farmers Congress) held from 27 to 29 February 2008.

“Innovative Bio-Regulators to Maximize Nutrient Utilization, Optimize Health Status and Control Intestinal Pathogens for Poultry”
Resource Speaker: Mr. Martin Enderink, Commercial Director of INVE Nutri-Aid.

“Real Time Pig Nutrition under Current Circumstances”
Resource Speaker: Dr. Sekson Attamangune, Ph.D in Poultry Science/Head Department of Animal Science, Kasetsart University in Thailand.

“Lactose in Piglet Feed: Luxury or Necessity?”
Resource Speaker; Mr. Erik Rensik, Area Export Manager, Sloten B.V. The Netherlands

• Dr. Daviño Catbagan (Bureau of Animal Industry)
• Dr. Victor Atienza (Bureau of Animal Industry)
• Ms. Mia Abela (The Embassy of Belguim)
• Ms. Geraldine Cruz (The Embassy of Belguim) and
• Ms. Paula Schindeler (Netherland Embassy)

We would also like to thank all of our other guests in making our celebration a success.

Photos of the event could be found here.