Nestlé posts record exports of $100M

By IRMA ISIP

Nestlé Philippines Inc. is investing another P2.5 billion in its facilities in the country this year, its chairman, president and chief executive officer Nandu Nandkishore reported yesterday.

Nandkishore in an interview with reporters at the sidelines of the launch of the Nescafe Classic First Pick limited edition coffee, also reported export sales hit a record $100 million last year.

The Philippines is Nestlé’s supply center for export of breakfast cereals and infant formula and filled milk powder in Asia. These products are produced at their factories in Lipa , Cabuyao and Cagayan de Oro, respectively.

The P2.5 billion would be used to modernize and expand capacity on all the plants.

Its latest investment involves a P350-million state-of-the-art fluidized bed boiler that burns "spent coffee" to generate fuel for its facility in Cagayan de Oro City.

Nandkishore projects group-wide sales to grow 10 percent but did not disclose any figures.

Nestle produces and markets products under the brands Nescafe, Nido, Milo, Nestle Maggi, Bear Brand, Nestle Alpo, among others with products ranging from coffee, milk, infant nutrition, infant food, beverages, non-dairy creamer, food, ice cream and chilled dairy, breakfast cereals, confectionery and petcare.

In launching the Nescafe Classic First Pick limited edition coffee, Nandkishore said the objective is to expose consumers to how Filipino coffee could taste.

Nandkishore said this coffee blend is made from coffee cherries that are handpicked and specially-processed. These are those picked within two to three weeks at the beginning of the harvest season that starts in as early as August in Mindanao all the way to the end of the year.

Coffee currently accounts for 25 percent of Nestle Philippines’ total business.

The company sources about $40-million worth of coffee from around 100,000 Filipino farmers from all over the country and processes it at its Cagayan de Oro factory bulk of which are sold locally. It also has a coffee farm in Davao which has provided about 80 percent of all robusta coffee planting materials used in the Philippines.

But Nandkishore said the coffee industry in the Philippines is growing at a slow pace of 4 to 5 percent annually the past five years as he noted the need to encourage further the cultivation of coffee in the country. "If you look at the consumer market as a whole, coffee business is not growing as fast as say the mobile industry. This means we need to do a lot of market development," Nandkishore said.

He said that the Philippines has a lot of opportunity for coffee farming because of its ideal climate and could regain its stature as a major coffee exporter.

Nandkishore said Vietnam, which started coffee farming just 10 years ago, is now the largest exporter of robusta and second largest in total coffee next to Brazil.

Nescafe covers the different categories in beverages from pure soluble coffee to soluble coffee specialties and mixes, ready-to-drink coffee beverages and other innovative and value-added beverages.


http://www.malaya.com.ph/jan20/busi1.htm