By Manny Piñol
Pilipinas Agila Tires, the first farmer-owned motorcycle tire brand using locally harvested rubber cup lumps, will be in the market next month at prices lower than imported tires.
President Rody Duterte will be requested to officially launch the marketing of the Pilipinas Agila 300×17 motorcycle tires which comes exactly one year after the Philippine Rubber Industry Road Map was crafted and presented to him by the DA and the Department of Trade and Industry.
The manufacturing and marketing of the tires for working motorcycles commonly known as “habal-habal” and tricycle marks a small step forward in the program of the Department of Agriculture to elevate the farmer from the status of a raw material producer to the processor and merchandiser of finished products with added-value.
The Philippine Rubber Farmers’ Cooperative composed of rubber farmers from all over Mindanao and Palawan leads the effort to develop finished products from the raw rubber cup lumps.
Organised by the DA in 2017 and assisted by the DTI, the PRFC entered into a processing and marketing agreement with Leo Tires Manufacturing of Valenzuela, Metro Manila in a supply and buy-back scheme.
Under the agreement, PRFC will buy the cup lumps produced by its members and process these into rubber blocks called SPR-20 which will be delivered to Leo Tires Manufacturing.
Leo Tires Manufacturing will buy the SPR-20 which it will use in manufacturing the Pilipinas Agila motorcycle tires which in turn will be bought back by the PRFC to be sold in the market.
The DA through the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) has approved a P10-M as initial working capital of the PRFC with an interest of 2% payable in eight years.
In the computation made by PRFC officials, the cooperative will make a little profit from buying cup lumps from its members and selling these as SPR-20 to Leo Tires Manufacturing.
The bigger margin of profit, however, will be realised in the sale of the Pilipinas Agila motorcycle tires where the cooperative is expected to gain at least P100 per tire sold.
“We, along with our children, will be the marketing agents of the Piipinas Agila tires and we can easily sell these even to our members because almost everybody owns a working motorcycle,” said Armando Pedregosa, President of the PRFC.
Initially, only the 300×17 motorcycle tire will be produced mainly because this is widely used and easily marketable in the provinces.
“Our next move is to manufacture other tire sizes, including tires for small tractors like “kuliglig”,” Pedregosa said.
The DA projects that before the end of the term of President Duterte in 2022, the country’s rubber farmers will have their own tire manufacturing plant in Mindanao.
“We thank President Duterte for his support and we promise him, we will handle this project well and we will move forward and liberate ourselves from the bondage of middlemen and traders who buy our produce at very low prices and sell us expensive tires,” Pedregosa said.
(Photos show the first production of the Pilipinas Agila motorcycle tires. Succeeding photos show the engagements between PRFC and Leo Tires Manufacturing including a visit to the Leo Tires plant in Valenzuela. Two photos show my brother, Pat, and my son, Imman, beside rubber trees producing latex. The next four photos show the signing of the Philippine Rubber Industry Road Map while the last photo shows the presentation to President Duterte of the Road Map by DA and DTI.)
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