First class slaughterhouse facility rises in Buenavista town

#CaragaAgriculture #PCCP #CleanFoodFacility #BuenavistaSlaughterhouse

September 22, 2016 was a momentous day in the history of the Philippine Cold Chain Project.  The morning was spent at the ribbon cutting for the now well-equipped municipal slaughterhouse in Buenavista. The new slaughterhouse is located just a few kilometers west of Butuan City.

When PCCP started working on slaughter house development, we made the rounds visiting local mayors that requested some assistance and wanted to collaborate.  The problem faced here in the Philippines is that each mayor and local government unit has the responsibility to deal with issues of public health and sanitation in their municipalities.  Part of this responsibility includes enforcement of rules and regulations regarding the slaughter of animals and assurance that this process is done in a humane and clean fashion.  Backyard slaughtering in the town is not legal and should be done in a slaughter house.

After evaluating the situation in Buena Vista, PCCP found out that it was not unlike most other municipalities that we visited.  First of all, the mayor, his engineer and local staff involved with the public market and slaughter house did not possess an in-depth knowledge on how to make a new slaughter house work.  The existing slaughter house, located a short distance from the wet market could be described as a black cement slab and table with a cast iron tub for scalding pigs.  All slaughtering was done on the floor of this totally inadequate facility.  To promote change and improvements, the LGU had built a new “slaughter” house in another location. We inspected the existing place where animals were butchered and, afterwards, visited the newly-built structure where the slaughtering will be done. On touring this new facility, it had the rudimentary design features of a pig and cattle slaughter facility.  However, the overall materials used showed that the contractor was familiar with building houses but not building slaughter facilities.  The floor tiles, drainage system, water system, roof, entrances for people and animals were mostly done incorrectly, if not all!

PCCP staff then proceeded to work with the LGU and mayor’s office to redesign the new facility. There were necessary design changes to turn it into a working facility.  The project had been able to locate an excellent contractor based out of Manila who specializes in slaughter plant construction.  This contractor had been able to take measurements, prefabricate equipment and deliver it to the site. The construction team lived on site until the installation was completed.  They also worked with the LGU to initiate necessary design changes and improvements. 

PCCP discovered, as well, that plans developed by the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) for small scale slaughter facilities have not been adequately vetted.  One problem with these NMIS plans is in the design of the chute for the pigs when entering the plant.  PCCP changed this design to be just wide enough for the pig to walk in and also walls should be made of hollow block and not rails.   The ramp should also be on a gradual angle and not difficult for the animal to walk up.  In this way, stress on the livestock and handler is minimized.

The Philippines has good law on the books that mandates humane treatment of animals.  A properly designed facility should assure that the animal’s welfare is a primary concern.  We work with NMIS provincial unit to help raise awareness about what is illegal.  “Zorro” marking where the pig is marked with a razor blade on its hide for identification purposes should be stopped.  Stunning the pig with ineffective means that end up torturing the animal should be stopped as well.  In PCCP-assisted facilities, a stunner is installed.  After the pig walks up to the slaughter house, it is held in a specially designed chute.  The butcher rinses off the pig and then uses the stunner.  The stunner is a “y” shaped device that is placed behind the pig’s ears on its neck.  A foot pedal is used to start and stop and electric charge which stuns the pig to the point of unconsciousness.  There is no noise if this device is used correctly.  The chute then has a swinging door which allows easy access to the now stunned pig.  The pig then is “stuck” so that the blood drains and is caught in a sanitary container.  Pig blood is a very popular cooking ingredient here in the Philippines so it is saved.  Once this process is complete, the carcass is placed in the scalding tank.  This tank has been designed in such a way that it is easy to maintain the water at a scalding temperature without the presence of smoke from the fire in the slaughter house.  Above this tank there is an electric winch.  This winch, along with a stainless steel gambrel is used to pull the carcass out of the scalding tank in a way that keeps the butcher safe from the hot water and also helps him to avoid heavy lifting.  The carcass is now placed on a stainless table where it is scraped of all its hair.  People here like to have their pork with “skin on” unlike in the United States where the skin is usually removed.  Once scraped the gambrel is attached to a hook and this hook is on a roller which is placed on a rail.  This makes for easy movement of the carcass.  At this stage, the butchers may choose to “flame” the carcass as well which entails using a blow torch to burn of any remaining hair or fuzz on the skin.  The carcass is now open and the entrails are placed in a stainless container.  These entrails and the carcass are examined by the local LGU meat inspector.  The entrails are passed through an opening to a “dirty” area where they are further processed.  The butchers, who are wearing boots, aprons, hair net and face mask continue their work while standing on an elevated metal platform.  Once everything is clean and sorted, the carcass can be weighed, bagged in plastic or chilled (if a cooler is available).  At the end of the rail, the carcass is then transferred to a meat van and taken to the local market where the meat vendor cuts the carcass up in appropriate meat cuts.

The butchers have to wear proper equipment including rubber boots and pass through a foot bath and hand wash before they can start to work.  They should also have available a rest area and bathroom facility on site and be trained in proper procedures and sanitation techniques.  A knife dip should be used regularly to keep knives clean and sanitary.  Also the work areas should be kept clean.  In order to facilitate this, the proper design includes overhead water piping with hoses and pressure nozzles available in properly spaced intervals.  Outside the facility, there should be a wall with a gate, a cement “apron” around the slaughter house, and adequate water holding and water treatment facilities to handle the large amount of waste water generated by the facility.

In the case of Buenavista, there was a very nice ribbon cutting ceremony attended by all barangay captains and also members of the mayor’s management committee or SB.  The facility was properly blessed by the local priest and speeches were given.  This was followed by a typical meal that included roast pig.  The best part for me however was being able to see a project though to implementation.  It took longer than we expected but, in the end, PCCP and the LGU were able to come together and surmount all difficulties faced.  There is more to do at the new facility, including installation of a cattle line, cementing for the lot outside and putting up a wall and gate.  Still, Buenavista can now take pride of their 'AA' slaughter house facility where things are being done properly without any “on-floor” butchering and reduced stress for the pigs and people involved.

Change has come in BUENASCAR and Butuan City

#Caraga #PhilippineAgriculture #PhilippineColdChain #PCCP

The Caraga Region has been a hub for logging, wood manufacturing and mining for many years.  Even today mining provides the most jobs of any employment sector in the region.  Because of this type of employment, people focused on wage earning jobs and food supply chains for the region developed mostly through connections with other more agriculturally developed regions to the south and west.

Caraga has the potential to be a food basket and agro tourism hub for the Philippines.  It has a long coastline, beautiful mountains and island locations that have a high potential for tourism.  Caraga has rich soils and water resources that could be developed for the benefit of agriculture.  If Caraga region is to develop its agriculture potential and become a hub for ASEAN activity in food production and export a lot of development and education must occur.

Winrock International is implementing a multi-year program called the Philippine Cold Chain Project.  Funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, this project aims to help improve production and marketing of higher value perishable food in the Caraga region.  The program has just started its 4th year of work and is starting to have some high impact projects to show for its efforts.

If we take a trip down the road from Butuan City, we enter the BUENASCAR area.  This is short for the towns of Buena Vista, Nasipit and Carmen.

Starting with Carmen, a town on the coast and next to the mountains.  The climate and soils here are ideal for mango production.  But there is a lot of work to do with the over 60,000 mango trees in the municipality.  Pruning, fertilization and irrigation are needed as well as more education for farmers on how to manage mango farms efficiently.  Traditionally mangos have been shipped out by boat or plane to Cebu or Manila and very little promotion has been done to give Carmen mangos the branding attention they deserve.  Carmen has worked with and Spanish NGO to develop a small processing facility for puree and dried mango production.  But more needed to be done.  PCCP has worked with the municipality on developing producer groups and developing a first class food handling facility that, when completed, will be able to handle large volumes of mangos and enable them to be sorted and processed locally in order to improve farmer incomes and keep hard earned money here in the Caraga region.

Moving on to Nasipit, we find the Nasipit Port where weekly, over 120 containers of various types of bananas arrive from all over Mindanao and  are shipped to Manila and Cebu.  The handling of these bananas is still done in a way that has not changed for several decades.  Inside the port, bananas are “stuffed” into hot containers and block ice is used to try and keep them from getting too hot or becoming over ripe before they reach their destination.  PCCP has helped the LGU of Nasipit and the Philippine Ports Authority come up with a solution for banana and other food shippers on a one hectare parcel near the port.  This building and lot, called the Carara Regional Integrated Marketing Center will serve as a food hub for shipments of perishable food being shipped out of and into the Nasipit port.

Just down the road from Nasipit we arrive at Buena Vista.  This LGU is one of the recipients of equipment and training to help improve municipal slaughter facilities.  The previous facility, located near the city market was in complete disrepair.  This joint effort will help ensure humane handling of animals and keep the carcasses clean and up off the floor during slaughtering and processing.  

Just outside of Butuan City not far from the Bancasi Airport is a new warehouse facility operated by Happy Enterprise.  Actually two warehouses were constructed with help from PCCP.  Even through these are dry store warehouses, they provide benefits to PCCP partners.  Happy Enterprise is the warehouse provider for Pilmico Feeds.  Because of increases in volume of feed demand in the region, a new feed warehouse was needed.  Happy and PCCP partnered to build one warehouse for human food and one warehouse for animal al feeds that now help to meet the increases in feed demand as a result of PCCP activities.

Just a short drive to Libertad in Butuan we pass by a construction site.  After three years of looking for the right partner, PCCP has located a businessman who is willing to partner in putting up the first cold store warehouse in the Caraga Region.  PCCP has championed the need for Butuan as a regional hub to have cold store warehouse facilities available as can be found in Cagayan de Oro, Davao, Cebu or Manila.  With PCCP support, finally such a facility will be available in Butuan City to service the cold storage needs of the Caraga Region!

Turning to the left from Libertad we reach Masao. Masao has a high potential for fish cage production.  Currently PCCP is helping local groups to improve production and marketing of milk fish.  Areas to be improved include availability of milk fish fry or garungan and improve clustering of fish producers to facilitate marketing. Additionally more reliable supplies of ice for harvesting milk fish must be secured.

Driving back into town we pass by a FICCO branch office. FICCO provides coop membership in a micro credit bank.  FICCO is working with PCCP in order to provide agriculture loans to individual farmers and suppliers.  These loans are facilitated though a guarantee fund provided by PCCP that enables FICCO to take a risk on a new business venture such as agriculture loans.

Traveling into Butuan City we visit the Butuan City slaughter facility.  A company from Cagayan de Oro has entered in to a public private partnership with the city in order to rehabilitate this facility which coincidentally is located next to the offices of the National Meat Inspection Service.  What was previously a low standard facility has been upgraded to near AAA status.  PCCP is assisting with establishment of a first class chilling and freezing room connected to this plant.

Just across the fence from the slaughter house in Butuan, even more construction is occurring.  In this case PCCP, Happy Enterprise and Pilmico are partnering to develop a meat cutting plant.  This plant will provide hygenic packaged meat for sale in Happy stores or to other commercial customers.  It will also provide a regular demand for pigs that will be met by PCCP farmer groups in the Caraga Region.

If we continue our journey north or south in the region, we will find many groups of farmers and fisherfolks who are benefitting from PCCP partnerships.  With the assistance of the DA, DTI,  East West Seeds, SEAFDEC , Pilmico, VPO Farms, LGUs and other partners, PCCP is seeking to help farmers understand how to work toward producing high value perishable commodities that are in high demand throughout the region.  Shrimp, crabs, lobster, grouper, banana, mangoes, vegetables, pork, tilapia, milkfish, are commodities where PCCP is striving to reach a level where production matches demand and value addition can be done within the region and not outside.  The ultimate goal is to promote good agriculture practices where properly sorted and packaged commodities can, through the proper use of the cold chain, reach consumers in a fresh and healthy state and command the best prices possible.