Sunpride offers to build giant, modern abattoir for city gov't

CEBU, Philippines - A popular food processing company in the country has offered to build a giant and modern abattoir at the North Reclamation Area for the Cebu City government that would cost up to P200 million on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) scheme for 50 years.

Stephen “Bobong” Castillo, president of Sunpride Foods Incorporated, whose main plant is situated in Barangay Paknaan, Mandaue City, said the term can be shortened during the negotiation with Cebu City officials.

Castillo said that if the city officials will agree to their proposal, the abattoir that they are planning to construct in Cebu City will be much bigger and modern compared to their slaughterhouse in General Santos City.

Castillo said the Sunpride-owned slaughterhouse in General Santos City is known to be the best abattoir all over the country because of its modern equipment.

In a PowerPoint presentation at the Cebu City Hall yesterday, Castillo told City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete that the abattoir which Sunpride is planning to build in Cebu City is capable of slaughtering 160 hogs or 30 cattles in an hour.City Veterinarian Alice Utlang said there are about 200 hogs slaughtered in the city’s existing abattoir at the North Reclamation Area (NRA) that used to be the Most Modern Abattoir in Central Visayas in the 1980’s.

The city’s existing slaughterhouse at the North Reclamation Area is no longer accredited by the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) because its equipment are already dilapidated. Meat products that are butchered from unaccredited abattoirs cannot be transported to other places.

 Poblete said he will refer the offer of Sunpride to the City Legal Office for further study to find out whether it is advantageous for the city government to accept the proposal.

Castillo said they want that the giant abattoir to be constructed inside the 10-hectare city-owned lot at Block 27 of the North Reclamation Area which is just a stone’s throw away from the existing slaughterhouse.

The City Council had already approved a P30 million budget for the construction of a new abattoir building at the NRA. The amount, however, does not include the equipment needed for the abattoir operation.

Castillo said it would be much better if the city will only allow the slaughtering of animals at Sunpride’s Cebu City abattoir once it will be constructed because it will reduce the health problems posed by the unsanitary environment within the various slaughterhouses in the city.

“Standards for sanitation and hygiene, food safety, environmental friendliness, animal welfare, safety in the workplace, and efficiency in production systems are some of the many design facets which are lacking in current slaughterhouse designs,” Castillo said.

He added that almost all of the slaughterhouses in different places in Cebu were built many years ago based on the standards and designs which are no longer in keeping with the demands and expectations of our modern metropolis.  (FREEMAN)