In the banana producing areas in Mindanao, the growers have a problem with their so-called “rejects”
which are either too small or too big for the export market.

One big plantation alone may have 15 tons of rejects every day. There are some businessmen who buy the rejects dirt cheap (R500 per truckload) but they can buy just a small fraction.

One company that is taking advantage of the availability of cheap off-size bananas is Perfect Milling, a feedmill in Tagum City, Davao del Norte, managed by Aerol Conde. Thanks to the off-size bananas, Aerol can produce high quality feeds at a lower price than the competition. He said that his feeds (for swine and poultry) are at least P40 per bag cheaper than the leading brand in the market.

The secret is the use of banana meal as substitute for the expensive yellow corn as source of energy. The banana meal is just about P5 per kilo compared to the P12 per kilo of yellow corn or higher. The banana meal is a good source of energy. The fresh fruits are sliced, dried and then powdered.

Aerol, a mining engineer, used to work for a mining company but this closed down in 1991 so that he had to look for work as a beer salesman. While doing his beer marketing, he started raising a few pigs as additional source of income. That’s when a veterinarian friend who is expert in feed formulation taught him how to mix his own feeds. The formulation was good, his pigs grew fast and so he offered his feeds to other hog raisers. That’s how he found that feedmilling could be a good money maker. At that time it cost him only P300 to produce a bag of swine feed which he was able to sell at P450.

Aerol and his sister and two brothers decided in 1997 to make a business in feedmilling. They came up with an initial P100,000 capital, Aerol not drawing any salary for the first six months. The feedmill has grown into a major business. By next year a new pelletizing plant will start operating that could significantly add to the present production of 15,000 bags per month.