San Miguel Corp. (SMC) said it has developed a packaging solution that would extend carabao’s milk shelf life by six months and help farmers boost their income.
In a statement, SMC said its packaging unit has successfully developed a packaging solution “that will extend the life of carabao’s milk without the need for preservatives.”
SMC President and COO Ramong S. Ang said the San Miguel Packaging Group has been working to help carabao farmers find a solution on how to preserve the freshness of their product in the past few months.
Ang explained that the company has finalized the packaging solution using the so-called “retort” technology that allows fresh carabao milk to be sterilized in aluminum cans without the need for preservatives.
“This will be a major boost for carabao farmers and the carabao industry in general. The main limitation—perishability—that kept farmers from maximizing their income and growing their business, has been solved. Now, their products can be sold to more consumers in more markets,” Ang said.
“Carabao milk is very nutritious so there is a big market for it. We see this as potentially jumpstarting growth of the carabao industry. We look forward to continue helping them in any way we can to further grow their industry.”
Earlier in the pandemic, SMC helped carabao farmer cooperatives mitigate financial losses by buying their excess milk inventory and donating them to poor communities, averting wastage of thousands of liters of fresh carabao milk.
Ang said the company invested in new equipment at its beverage filling facility in San Fernando, Pampanga, for the new retort process.
“The process can also be used for a variety of beverage products, including teas, coffee, soya, and other milk-based products,” he said. “While utilizing the retort process is new to the company, the aluminum cans it has been producing have long been capable of being utilized for retort.”
Ang said the company is open to farmers, farmer-cooperatives, and small producers of similar products, who may want to learn more about the process, and engage San Miguel’s packaging unit as a toller or packaging provider, to grow their business.
“We are more than eager to work with, and help small producers. At the end of the day, this technology was developed with our farmers and entrepreneurs in mind, to help them through this critical period, as the economy is still not what it was,” he said.
“By providing them a way to distribute their products to more customers, we’re hoping to help them stay in business, grow their industry, and support food security for our country as we deal with the pandemic.”
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