Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr. has ordered the expansion of the Protein-Enriched Copra Meal (PECM) commercialization project to Western Visayas (Region VI), aimed at boosting local livestock production by providing a sustainable, cost-effective alternative protein source for animal feeds.
Launched in 2022 as a response to supply disruptions caused by COVID-19 and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, the PECM project was initially rolled out in CALABARZON (Regions IV-A) and SOCCSKSARGEN (Region XI). Designed to mitigate the rising costs of animal feed, the project uses copra meal—a by-product of coconut farming—as an affordable substitute for imported soybean meal, which has become increasingly expensive due to global supply chain issues.
PECM was engineered through a solid-state fermentation process, developed by the University of the Philippines-Los Baños’ Biotech Center, which enhances copra meal’s protein content to about 45 percent—comparable to soybean meal. The enriched copra meal has been successfully incorporated into the diets of finfish and shrimp, with feeding trials showing that including 200 kilos of PECM per ton of finfish feed and 100 kilos per ton of shrimp feed leads to a 3.9 percent and 0.4 percent reduction in feed costs, respectively, compared to conventional commercial feeds.
Sec. Tiu Laurel said the expansion of the PECM project to Western Visayas is expected to significantly benefit local farmers and feed producers in the region, who have been grappling with rising prices for traditional feed ingredients. “The program not only helps reduce feed costs but also supports the local economy by creating new markets for coconut by-products, which are often underutilized,” he said.
While COVID-19 has passed, the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to disrupt global feed ingredient supply chains, keeping prices for essential commodities like soybean meal, feed wheat, and corn elevated. Russia and Ukraine together account for about 30 percent of global feed grain supply, further exacerbating the pressure on feed prices.
The PECM project is a collaboration between the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development, UP Los Baños, and various farmers cooperatives and associations.
In 2023, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that only hog production in Western Visayas saw a decline, dropping by 23 percent to 158,471 metric tons. Conversely, carabao production increased by 3.9 percent to 17,159 metric tons, while Cattle production grew by 0.1 percent to 19,007 metric tons. Goat production also rose by 11 percent to 7,105 metric tons.
Meanwhile, chicken production in Western Visayas last year increased by 4.8 percent to 131,926 metric tons, while chicken egg output rose by 7.9 percent to 40,015 metric tons. However, duck production decreased by 1.9 percent to 2,722 metric tons, and duck egg production fell by 5.4 percent to 4,306 metric tons.
By expanding the copra meal initiative, the DA aims to strengthen food security, improve local feed production, and promote more efficient use of agricultural by-products in livestock farming. ###
