Excelsior and Eggcelsior Farms: Addressing food sustainability through modern and energy-efficient farming
“The biggest challenge our country, The Philippines, is facing is food security and sustainability,” said Excelsior Farms President and Eggcelsior Poultry Farms CEO, Alvin Hing.
The Philippines is one of the top consumers of meat in the world. Pork consumption was at 10.66 kilograms per capita in 2021, and is expected to reach 14 kilograms by 2031. Challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and the African Swine Flu disrupted the supply of swine in the country. However, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that as of June 2023, swine inventory increased by 1.4 percent with approximately 10.07 million heads. The chicken laying flock inventory also increased to 6 percent which was about 62.22 million birds.
These positive reports were a result of continuous innovation in the agricultural sector particularly in commercial farming for consistency of meat supply.
“We continuously find ways to innovate our existing products and help revive our country’s swine industry through modern farming” Hing added.
Modern and Smart Farming
Excelsior Farms, a swine breeder farm partnered with the Pig Improvement Company (PIC), a global pig genetic company. Excelsior is one of the biggest nucleus farms of PIC in the country. Its corporate office is in Cebu City while the farm is located in Barangay Sacsac, Pinamungajan, Cebu.
Excelsior integrates state-of-the-art technology through an automatic feeding system and climate control system wherein the temperature is controlled for a comfortable environment for the pigs. The farm is majorly composed of modern facilities and equipment with the latest state-of-the-art technology sourced from North America and Europe.
As part of Excelsior’s alliance with PIC, Excelsior’s production employees are trained in accordance with global quality standards when it comes to swine production.
The farm supplies pork meat to Luzon and Visayas through various supermarkets while simultaneously supplying breeders to different swine farms in the country.
EGGCelsior Poultry Farms Inc., a child company of Excelsior, is a modern layer farm in Argao, Cebu. The farm features climate-controlled, well-ventilated, well-lit, and automated facilities such as a pullet house, layer house, and egg room. This makes an ideal environment for hens to lay their eggs and ensure the collection of fresh, clean, and safe-to-consume eggs. EGGCelsior has over 30 retail stores in Cebu. They also supply fresh farm eggs to wet markets, supermarkets, hotels, restaurants, bakeshops, and food processing companies in the province.
Energy-efficient Farming Solutions
Excelsior’s corporate office has been utilizing solar energy since April 2018. Aside from this, the 9-year-old company, Excelsior, and its child company EGGcelsior ventured and added to its energy-efficient initiatives through the use of solar energy in both farms. Its recent partnership with reputable renewable energy supplier, Invenic Inc. was sealed last August 2023
“Excelsior and EGGcelsior’s management team is keen on reducing its environmental “footprint” and make the business more sustainable. Aside from Excelsior’s biogas in the farm, Management has decided and engaged itself in the use of solar energy for both farms.” said Senior Supply Chain Manager, Fritziel Alde.
Representing top companies like Tesla and Aboitiz, Invenic Inc. provides full solar energy coverage for Excelsior and Eggcelsior. They will shoulder the cost of installation, cleaning, and maintenance for 20 years.
“We build renewable energy on all their roofs to help them save on energy costs,” said Invenic Inc. Founder and CEO Edmund Yen.
Excelsior and Eggcelsior will have a 1-megawatt capacity of solar energy which totals 1,880 solar panels.
“1 megawatt can generate approximately around 1 million kilowatts per hour, per year. It will save on the cost of Excelsior and Eggcelsior maybe roughly 21.6 million a year,” said Invenic Inc. Sales and Business Development Manager, Ronnie Lugtu.
“Using a megawatt solar capacity also avoids a total of 56 thousand kilograms of carbon dioxide.” He added.
Giving Back for Future Generations
As part of both companies’ goal of helping boost the agriculture industry of the Philippines, the SWINEnovation Learning Center will be relaunched next year to assist in massively educating future generations of farmers in modern and high-yielding farming methods.
SWINEnovation is located in Excelsior’s corporate office and is a product of the alliance built between Excelsior, PIC and Cargill.
For more info about Excelsior, please call +63 32 517 4964 or +63 32 416 1299. For inquiries about EGGcelsior, one may visit their website here.
ADVT.
