Poultry egg farmers in San Jose, Batangas, mostly members of Batangas Egg Producers Association, has been aspiring to invest in an egg processing plant to modernize the egg industry and make the products competitive globally as early as 2004. The project was submitted for funding to Department of Agriculture during the time of Former Secretary Luis Lorenzo. During the First World Egg Day celebration of San Jose, Batangas in October 2009, Former Secretary Arthur Yap graced the event. The initial 25 poultry farmers also started to have regular meetings to pursue the project and help the egg industry in marketing of eggs. They have formally organized and established as Batangas Egg Producers Cooperative (BEPCO) in 2010 under Cooperative Development Administration.
BEPCO’s first project is the Establishment of Liquid Egg Processing Plant and has been a successful Public-Private-Partnership with the Department of Agriculture (DA) providing us a grant for the procurement of the equipment and initial set up of the facility and BEPCO completing the facility, research, product development and marketing of the pasteurized liquid egg products: whole, yolk, and whites. By this time, the Cooperative has grown to 54 members who took contributory roles in management, marketing and financing.
BEPCO is also an open channel between the government and Batangas poultry stakeholders especially during the challenging time of the occurrence of Avian Influenza (AI). The Cooperative is cognizant of this challenge and the material impact to the farmers and the community. Such, BEPCO is taking a pro-active role to keep Batangas AI free and deliver an “Eggcosystem” that shall deliver a sustainable agricultural framework as the Batangas province supplies around 25% of the egg requirements of the Philippines. As a leader in food innovation, BEPCO enjoin stakeholders to be our partners of our Eggs Innovation Towards Sustainability and Food Security Program, which was launched during World Egg Day 2017. Series of products were developed by the Cooperative to make eggs not just a breakfast item but a part of daily diet whether eaten during day or night. These new egg products were promoted in several trade fairs and exhibits supported by DA and DTI.