Ray Roberto, the first local resident able to import animal feeds from the Philippines after securing the approval of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Food and Drug Administration. said in an interview yesterday that his intention is to help meet the objective of the CNMI government, which is to provide local farmers and ranchers with quality and more affordable feeds for their farm animals.
When he started importing animal feeds in February, Roberto said he realized how expensive it was to ship such products to the island.
He said he still does not charge high prices.
Almost 50 percent of poultry farmers and hog raisers on Saipan are already his customers, he added.
Some ranchers were hesitant to expand their activities due to high cost of feeds.
This prompted the Department of Lands and Natural Resources to work with Northern Marianas College’s Cooperative Research Extension and Education Services in finding cheaper animal feeds.
But when the CNMI got the federal approval to ship animal feed products from Sarimanok Feeds Co. in Bulacan, a province north of Manila, the Philippines, some ranchers still doubted whether the price would be affordable.
They urged the government to regulate the price of the animal feeds.
Roberto said he sells the lowest priced feeds on island.
For his part, DLNR Secretary Ignacio Dela Cruz, in a separate interview, said if local ranchers can form a group, they can negotiate with Roberto and pay even lower prices.
DLNR’s success of getting federal approval for importing animals feeds should reduce the cost of farming in the CNMI, Dela Cruz said.
