Farming conglomerate Agri Nurture Inc. (ANI) is venturing into white corn as a health food that can capture the AB market that pays a premium for nutritive value.
ANI is introducing into the market First Choice Always (FCA) White Corn Grit set in July this year. This is as soon as harvest is up under its production partnership with the Institute of Plant Breeding-University of the Philippines in Los Banos-College of Agriculture (IPB-UPLB-CA). It will be priced a little cheaper than hybrid rice.
ANI Chief Executive Officer Antonio L. Tiu believes white corn offers a unique, vast untapped value.
“Although there was a mentality among the Tagalog’s before that it’s for the poor, white corn is actually healthier. It’s widely accepted by the Visayas-Mindanao population and is the staple of boxing champs,” said Tiu.
ANI’s entry in the market will have a significant role in white corn’s consumption as a low glycemic index (GI) food ideal for reducing diabetic incidence. That will be crucial considering diabetes’s rising incidence in the country.
“We need private companies like ANI to bring investments into this low GI food. ANI’s reach in the middle to upper class market will make uptake of corn easier in all market levels. After all, nutritious food should be for all,” according to Dr. Artemio M. Salazar, IPB-UPLB deputy director and National Corn Research, Development, and Extension Network (NC-RDEN) head.
By July, ANI will distribute a few tons per week. With demand expected to increase briskly, white corn will be harvested from a few hundred hectares of contract growers by October.
FCA White Corn Grits will be available in packs of two and five kilos in all major supermarkets and 50-kilo sacks for wholesalers.
ANI is initially infusing P20 to P30 million for a mid-size mill that turns grain into grits. It also just started construction of a post harvest facility with Beidahuang in Central Luzon. Investment in inputs (seeds, fertilizer) involve P5 million for existing 100 hectares and P50 million into 1,000 hectares by yearend.
Salazar said that UPLB’s role is in the seed technology development, but the Department of Agriculture (DA) took a pivotal role of making this available on a wider scale. DA funded white corn’s seed production by P40 million and will release P7 million yearly for the next five years.
“Now that we have the confidence that the technology works, DA’s support to a company like ANI, which will commercialize it, is in order. This is in line with government’s Public Private Partnership approach. Other companies willing to put in the investment would be welcome as well,” he said.
Along with the aim to enhance food security and reduce rice imports, white corn production will give jobs to hundreds of farmers. This is at an estimated one job for each hectare of land (1:1), aside from numerous jobs to be generated from farm to plate.
DA and UPLB, through the Institute of Human Nutrition, are popularizing white corn’s health benefits and its use for champorado, lugaw (korngee), coffee, fritters, pulboron, pastillas, espasol, suman, hotcake, turon, maruya, and of course as rice blend.
“People need to be aware of its health benefits. It’s cheaper, but just a few percent lower than hybrid rice because corn is heavier as food and is healthier,” Tiu said.
Corn is the health food recommended for energy specially for athletes. Some successful athletes were found to have been regular corn-eaters. This is true not only for boxers from General Santos in Mindanao but also for boxers and other sports personalities from Latin America and Africa. It also has more protein, more lysine and tryptophan, more dietary fiber, more minerals, and more antioxidants than when eating rice alone.
ANI is now the biggest supplier of agricultural produce—fresh and processed—in local supermarkets. It will use such existing network in the distribution of FCA White Corn Grits. White corn will further supplement its distribution of hybrid rice.
The main production areas for white corn for ANI’s distribution, which are being identified by DA and UPLB, include the Calabarzon provinces (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon).
IPB-UPLB is producing foundation and registered white corn seeds, while DA’s regional offices will be producing the commercial seeds for release to farmers nationwide.
Based on the national corn testing, the yield of IPB’s white corn open pollinated variety Var 6 is comparable with commercial white corn hybrids. This is at an average of 5.84 metric tons (MT) per hectare in Luzon; 5.45 MT per hectare in Visayas, and 4.47 MT per hectare in Mindanao. Dr. Artemio M. Salazar, NC-RDEN
