PPI eyes larger share in fertilizer market

MANILA, Philippines – Planters Products Inc. (PPI), an attached corporation of the Department of Agriculture (DA), is aiming to corner a larger share in the local fertilizer market to give farmers access to cheaper fertilizers.

From 1973 until the early 1980s, PPI played an important role in the implementation of Masagana 99, a government fertilizer subsidy program aimed at helping rice farmers have better yield. Back then, the company was a major distributor of fertilizers in the country, holding an 80 percent market share.

The Masagana 99 program enabled the country to attain rice self-sufficiency and was even able to export for a brief period. PPI back then was able to sell fertilizers at a price that is 40 percent lower than commercial fertilizers.

 “Right now, we are working to bring that back,” said PPI president and CEO John Paolo Roberto Calleja in a press conference yesterday to mark the company’s 50th anniversary.

PPI currently holds a five percent market share in the local fertilizer market. Local demand is currently placed at 1.7 million metric tons annually. In three years, PPI wants to be able to corner 10 percent of the total market by introducing new types of both organic and non-organic fertilizers. This is equivalent to 150,000 to 200,000 metric tons per year.

The company has also doubled the production capacity of its formulating plant in Canlubang, Laguna to one million kilograms of agro-chemical products this year since getting its ISO certification in 2008.

Within three years, PPI is also planning to put up a new fertilizer factory in Bulacan that will have a production capacity of 150,000 metric tons annually. Calleja declined to disclose the investment amount for the project.

“Within three years, our goal is for farmers to accept new technologies (in fertilizers),” said Calleja. “We are introducing these to farmers.”

PPI fertilizer prices range between P1, 250 to P1, 300 per 50 kilogram bag.

 “We are still looking for a proper credit facility. If we get it, this (factory) will be up and running by next year,” he said.

Aside from increasing fertilizer production, PPI has also entered into a rice and seed distribution agreement with Thailand-based genetically modified corn seeds and hybrid rice seed producer Advanta.

“The problem of most farmers is access to fertilizers, seeds and pesticides,’ our goal is to bring those to farmers,” said Calleja.

PPI is also implementing the Plant now Pay Later program that extends to farmers for farm inputs at a term of 150 days. The company has developed partnerships with irrigators associations to identify farmers who qualify for the program.