Cold chain company expands Tarlac facility
The Board of Investments (BOI) recently gave the nod to the R78.3-million project of 557 Feather Meal Corp. to expand its poultry dressing and cold storage facility in Concepcion, Tarlac.
The project was granted incentives under the Investment Priorities Plan’s Preferred Activities Category for Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry, which covers production of seeds and support services and infrastructures such as facilities for drying, cold chain storage, blast freezing, slaughterhouse, Class AAA dressing plant.
The expansion project already started commercial operations in June this year with an additional 460 personnel on board.
New equipment have been installed at the facility to process 12.48 million birds annually in addition to its existing registered capacity of 19.968 million a year or an increase of 63 percent in annual production capacity.
The facility exclusively serves the poultry dressing and further processing requirements of San Miguel Foods, Inc. (SMFI).
This expansion will address the chicken meat requirements of Central Luzon considering its growing demand,” Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo said.
The company is the only accredited poultry dressing plant in Tarlac, but there are 20 poultry dressing plants in the entire Region 3. Half are classified as Triple A (including 557 Feather Meal Corp.) and the remaining are considered “AA.”
It receives live birds from the poultry growing farmers of SMFI located in Tarlac and nearby provinces. In the wake of the bird flu outbreak in Pampanga and Nueva Ecija, San Miguel Pure Foods Company, Inc. (SMPFC) said its Magnolia chicken brand are safe for public consumption. SMFI is a subsidiary of SMPFC, the food division of conglomerate San Miguel Corporation (SMC). SMFI farms and its entire broiler flocks recently tested negative for the avian influenza. There were also no manifestations of any symptoms of the flu. SMPFC said in a statement that they continue to implement rigorous biosecurity measures in all SMFI controlled farms to avoid contamination from the flu as they continue to adhere to international food safety and health standards.