• Home
• Business
• National
• Metro
• Opinion
• Sports
• Entertainment
• Living

Listed AgriNurture Inc. (ANI) sees the agriculture sector experiencing rapid growth in three to five years due to increase in demand brought about by population growth, reduction of arable land and water resources and reduction of food supply due to global warming.

Antonio Tiu, president and chief executive officer of ANI, is calling for improvements in the agriculture sector for it to grow further.

Tiu said these improvements include additional basic infrastructure: dams, farm-to-market roads, expressways, more efficient inter-island logistics, cold storage, research and development, and a strong processing/manufacturing sector.

"Aside from that, there should also be somebody watching over WTO (World Trade Organization) regulations and expanding wider export markets," Tiu said.

On the technology side, Tiu calls for more support from both the public and private sectors for the country’s agriculture schools, including scholarships for bright students so that they would be encouraged to conduct research and development.

He also proposes more marketing efforts to attract foreign partners in joint ventures.

According to Tiu, the incoming administration would have its hands full when plotting an effective roadmap for the sector’s growth.

"I hope that the new administration would come up with a more sustainable and long-term roadmap towards self-sufficiency, poverty alleviation through farming, farmland in exchange for arms for rebels, improvement of inter-island logistics, and the development of the Mindanao region as the country’s food basket," Tiu said.

Tiu said the country will play a significant role in the regional agriculture business, saying its proximity to China and Japan is an advantage.

He cited the vast tracts of untapped farm land for cultivation, coupled with affordable farm labor anywhere in the country.

The country’s agriculture sector was estimated to have grown between 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent in 2009.

In 2008, the agriculture sector posted a healthy growth of 4.68 percent growth.

ANI is an agro-commercial company specializing in the international and local distribution of quality fresh fruits and vegetables. The company supplies its products to leading supermarkets and commercial establishments nationwide.

ANI has also developed a franchising program for its "Pangkabuhayan" veggie cart project. The project will be launched around late May or June.

ANI was listed at the Philippine Stock Exchange last year, making it the only purely agricultural company that is listed in the bourse’s 40 years of existence. In 2008, ANI became the first Philippine-based-and agricultural-company to be registered in a First World stock market, Australia’s National Stock Exchange.

ANI has full forward and backward integrations through ANI’s farming subsidiary, Best Choice Harvest, which undertakes joint-venture farming, contract growing, farm/plantation leasing, and farming research and development with farmers and landowners, particularly in the Visayas and Mindanao.

• Business Insight
• Business