Philippine's San Miguel, Malaysia's Kuok Group to develop farmland

Posted: 03 July 2008 1908 hrs

Philippine's San Miguel, Malaysia's Kuok Group to develop farmland
Posted: 03 July 2008 1908 hrs

San Miguel corporation headquarters in Manila


MANILA: San Miguel Corp. said on Thursday it would invest up to a billion dollars with Malaysia's Kuok Group to develop a million hectares (2.47 million acres) of Philippine farmland.

"Food supply is an important strategic tool for everyone," Manila-based San Miguel's chairman Eduardo Cojuangco told Dow Jones Newswires.

Food prices are likely to remain at "extraordinary" high levels through 2010, he added, without elaborating.

The project is designed to ensure adequate supply of rice, corn, sugar and other basic food staples for the Philippines, one of the world's top rice importers, San Miguel said in a statement.

Government agencies "will identify, evaluate and review government land suitable for food production," it said.

San Miguel and the Kuok Group "will provide financial, technical expertise for the development and cultivation of the land," it added.

The two companies "guarantee to buy all food products" from these farms, which will be tilled by tenant-farmers and "will continue to be owned by the government," San Miguel said.

"Food security is a global issue. But here in the Philippines, we are feeling the effects even more," San Miguel president Ramon Ang said in the statement.

"Often, when food crises happen, it is not because there is insufficient food supply, but because people do not have access to them," he added.

The farm sector accounts for a fifth of Philippine economic output, but employs a third of its work force, according to government data.


- AFP/so



San Miguel in $1bn food deal with Kuok

By Roel Landingin in Manila

Published: July 3 2008 10:35 | Last updated: July 3 2008 10:35


Staple diet: the $1bn partnership will develop land to produce crops such as rice in the Philippines, which has been hit hard by rising prices


San Miguel and Malaysia’s Kuok Group on Thursday announced plans to invest about $1bn to develop a million hectares of public land to help boost production of rice, corn, sugar and other crops in the Philippines.

The country is the world’s biggest rice importer and has been one of the hardest hit by the rising prices of food and fuel.

Inflation surged to a nine-year high of 9.6 per cent in May compared with an average of 2.9 per cent in the whole of 2007.

The central bank raised policy rates last month and has signalled it may do so again in the next few months.

San Miguel is the Philippines’ biggest food and drinks maker.

Eduardo Cojuangco, its chairman, and Robert Kuok, head of the Kuok Group that runs the Shangri-La Hotels chain, signed a memorandum of understanding to help Manila boost food production by committing to invest $1bn in agribusiness ventures.

They will use idle lands owned by the government.

San Miguel said the partnership will be run as a business venture rather than philanthropy.

Close personal ties between Mr Cojuangco and Mr Kuok – their companies have no joint ventures in the Philippines – helped firm up the partnership, San Miguel said.

The agreement, called Feeding Our Future, was signed during the groundbreaking for Shangri-La Hotels’s fifth hotel in the Philippines – a 60-storey tower that will house 500 guest rooms and 234 apartments at the Fort Bonifacio complex, a former army base that the government is redeveloping into a new business district.

Mr Cojuangco and Mr Kuok are expected to sign agreements with four government agencies, including the armed forces, which will identify and allocate unused land holdings and reservations for the programme.

Officials said that details, such as when the investments are to be made and food production targets, will be thrashed out at a later date.

The initiative is the biggest private corporate response so far to the rice and food price crisis in the Philippines and is reminiscent of a 1970s-era programme launched by Ferdinand Marcos, who ordered companies to run rice farms to ensure supply of the staple for their employees.

Ramon Ang, the president of San Miguel, said: “Food security is a global issue. But here in the Philippines, we are feeling the effects even more.”


Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008





San Miguel表示将与香港郭氏集团合作开发农业项目
作者 理财18 2008-07-03 11:24

【内容提要】东南亚最大食品及饮料业集团San Miguel董事长Eduardo Cojuangco周四表示,将投资多达10亿美元与香港郭氏集团(Kuok group)成立农业合资公司.

东南亚最大食品及饮料业集团San Miguel董事长Eduardo Cojuangco周四表示,将投资多达10亿美元与香港郭氏集团(Kuok group)成立农业合资公司.

Cojuangco称菲律宾政府将与该合资公司合作.该项目将承担100万公顷土地的开发,两家公司预计每公顷最多支出1,000美元.