UNIVET Nutrition and Animal Healthcare Co. (Unahco), a subsidiary of United Laboratories Inc. (Unilab), said sales of its poultry feed did not decline, despite the recent avian-influenza (AI) outbreaks in some areas in Central Luzon.
Unahco Poultry Business Unit Head Fe Marie Alejandre-Colico said demand for their poultry feed under the “Sarimanok” brand remained stable even at the height of the bird-flu outbreaks in San Luis, Pampanga, and Jaen and San Isidro in Nueva Ecija.
“Sales did not go down because Central Luzon is only a small share of our overall poultry feed market,” Alejandre-Colico told reporters at the sidelines of a news briefing on Unagro Crop Science’s new line of crop protection products. Unagro is the agronomy division of Unahco.
“In fact, we are still in the process of penetrating those areas, because these areas are mostly for duck farming. That’s why the bird-flu outbreak was not that painful on our part,” she added.
Alejandre-Colico disclosed they do not have any clients in Jaen and San Isidro, Nueva Ecija, but they have seven customers who are into duck farming in San Luis, Pampanga.
She said the company helped in addressing the AI outbreaks through distribution of vitamins to the members of the task force, particularly those handling the culling of the birds. Unahco also provided checkpoint signage in areas affected by bird flu.
Alejandre-Colico added the company extended the payment period for their customers in areas struck by bird flu. “We asked our distributors to extend the credit terms of our customers because we know that they incurred losses.”
Unahco also revealed on Thursday that it will unveil Unagro’s crop protection products during the 2017 Agrilink, Foodlink, Aqualink Trade Fair, which will kick off on October 5, at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.
Company president and COO Ricardo C. Alba said Unagro is the exclusive Philippine distributor of the crop production products from Malaysian firm Hextar Chemicals Sdn Bhd and Kemistar Corp.
Unagro will launch Capture 5 EC, a brand of insecticide; Mandate 80 WP, a fungicide; herbicide Suria 48 SL; and Slayer 70 WP, a molluscicide that kills golden apple snails, a pest of rice, according to Alba.
“Our priority market other than rice and corn farmers are vegetable gardens. We will initially focus the sale distribution of these products in Luzon and would later on venture into Mindanao,” he said.