Small Farmers and Jollibee in Farm Entrepreneurship Program

Jollibee Foods Corporation (JFC) continues with its Farmers Entrepreneurship Program (FEP)  with Filipino farmers for 9 years. Launched in 2008, the program helps small farmers by integrating them with its supply chain for its giant fastfood business.

Initiated by the Jolibee Group Foundation (JGF), the farmers through their cooperatives supplies the vegetable requirements of the fastfood chain. Currently, supplying 20% to 30% of the the vegetable requirements, they aim to increase the participation by adding 3 more cooperatives in 2017 according to JGF Executive Director Giselle Tiongson.

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 “We’re also looking at additional sites possibly in Calabarzon, Luzon and Metro Manila,” Tiongson disclosed

Farmers and cooperatives from the Visayas and Mindanao are also being considered in increasing the local supply component.

 “We are continuously looking for partners such as local government units and micro-finance institutions that will help the farmers,” added Tiongson.

One participant in the FEP has doubled his income since being part of the program and is presently earning Php1.5 million annually. 

Instead of just being limited to supplying the public wet markets, the contract farming under the FEP also has assistance from micro-finance institutions and the Local Government Units (LGUs)

This enables the farmers to program their production and output and has enabled them to be more financially and economically independent as farmers should be.

Their crops include palay, onions, and corn including “siling labuyo”.

This guarantees their income and have a stable customer base for their products.

With the guaranteed market, these farmers need not go into the usual mortgage of their lands so as to begin planting of their crops. This comes about because they are backed up by cooperatives that give guarantees to the micro-finance institutions.

Such exposure as being a supplier to a fastfood giant also opens up opportunities to other  industry markets that require farm and agricultural produce such as restaurants chains and food processors.