Tobacco farmers overwhelmed over Mighty Corp’s assistance

Mighty Corp. has been instrumental in helping the farmers in Pangasinan and the Ilocos provinces which expressed relief that their tobacco leaves will have a sure market this year.

Mario Cabasal, president of the National Federation of Tobacco Growers and Cooperatives elated over hearing Mighty’s commitments to initially buy at least 10 million kilograms of tobacco leaves at an average price of P70 per kilo and buy all the excess tobacco leaves that farmers could not sell to other buyers.

 “We limited to minimum areas fields planted to tobacco last year in anticipation of depressed demand due to the scheduled implementation of the sin tax,” Cabasal said. “good thing, some farmers were able  to sell part of their low-grade harvests to Mighty in 2013,” he added.

“Now that we are assured of an alternative market, besides other tobacco companies, our members will again be inspired to devote larger areas to the cultivation of Ilocandia’s most important cash crop,” he said.

Did you know that the farmers from the Ilocos Region shifted to planting yellow corn? It’s the only way that they can generate income which thrives in dry land where rainfall is scarce during the summer months. 

Meanwhile, planting of the golden leaf started in December and selling the dry leaf often peaks before the Holy Week.

“With Mighty Corp’s assurance that the company will buy all the unsold tobacco harvested by farmers, we can also be sure that unlike in the past, prices will stay high even after the holiday season. Price cut downs on harvests after the Holy Week was an old practice of middlemen from Ilocos Norte to Pangasinan.

 

Mighty Corp vows to defend its market in the country

Mighty Corp, a Filipino-owned tobacco manufacturer in the country vowed to defend their market against powerful competitors.

“We assure our loyal customers, bankers, retailers, wholesalers and employees that we will not remain passive against the subterfuge and other malicious and damaging trickeries employed by our competitors in trying to destroy our business,” Atty. Miguelito V. Ocampo, Might legal counsel said.

Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corp has been complaining over what Mighty is doing to fight back and ruled the tobacco industry. The rival company has been spreading malicious lies against Mighty.

“This is the kind of fallacious and damaging reasoning that our competitors have systematically disseminated to the public to destroy our company,” Ocampo added.

“This kind of disinformation does not only undermine the integrity of our revenue authorities but also deceives the public, consumers in particular, to create a hatred against our company and in the process undermine our market,” he said.

“What they don’t tell the public, however,” Ocampo said, “is that PMFTC is also selling low-priced cigarettes similar to our brand Mighty. In fact, it has four brands selling at one-peso-per stick – Champion M. King, Champion M 100, Jackpot M 100’s and Westpoint Filter King.”

“If our brands are selling more and have eaten their market, it’s not our fault,” he said.

“Besides, they cannot deny that our cigarettes have different smell, flavor and aromatic taste and are exceptionally smooth, mellow and attractively packaged aside from the fact that our cigarettes are produced comparatively at lower cost and that they are made by Filipinos for the Filipinos in this deregulated country where profit-oriented foreigners and their local partners always wanted to rule the industry,” Ocampo said.

Aside from leading the tobacco industry, Mighty Corp also involved doing CSR projects in the country in which they helped a lot of farmers and its family to increase their income.

Mighty Corp is buying more tobaccos from local farmers

Mighty Corporation or Mighty Corp, one of the country’s local producers of low-priced cigarettes, announced that it will buy 10 million kilograms of tobacco products worth millions of pesos from farmers in Northern Luzon.

Mighty Corporation’s market shares surged to almost 20% of the low-priced cigarette brands last year from 3% the previous year, resulting to the payment P8.2 billion in excise taxes.

According to Mighty Corp executive vice president Oscar Barrientos, their company’s market shares shot up after the government effectively implemented Republic Act 10352, otherwise known as the Sin Tax Law that leveled the playing field in the multi-billion peso tobacco industry which was controlled by Philip Morris and Fortune Tobacco. The new law that took 14 years to pass caused a tremendous migration of smokers from the expensive premium and sub-premium brands to low-priced cigarettes.

Before the end of 2013, total tax collection by the BIR hit an all time increase of P91.6 billion from P60.4 billion in 2012. Taxes from cigarettes represented 61.6 percent or almost two thirds of all sin tax collection for 11 months of 2013.

Mighty Corp., then a minor player with a measly three percent of the market share with only P500 million in excise tax payments before the sin tax law took effect in 2012, contributed P8.2 billion in tax payments in 2013, discrediting its critics that it had allegedly committed technical smuggling and tax evasion.

Mighty Corporation Assured Farmers of Brisk Sale This Year

Mighty Corporation or Mighty Corp assures farmers in the Ilocos Region and Cagayan Valley of brisk sale of tobacco leaves in 2014.

The assurance was made by  Oscar P. Barrientos, executive vice president of Mighty Corporation.

“We have earned our fair share of the market by making quality but affordable cigarettes that were smartly packaged, creatively and ingenuously sold to the mass market. That is the secret of our success in breaking the cigarette monopoly in this country and were mighty proud of our modest success coming from a home-grown and Filipino-owned cigarette company, said Barrientos.

With a bigger share of Mighty Corporation in the market today, the Filipino-owned cigarette manufacturing company are giving the tobacco farmers a fair share of their success by offering competitive prices to their crops.

Barrientos stressed that over the years, Mighty Corp has consistently championed the cause of the Filipino tobacco farmers by buying a larger share of the low-grade tobacco leaves at a good prices. This year, they bought even the low-priced tobacco leaves.

The domestic market for cigarettes became a virtual monopoly with over 90% of the market share when international tobacco giant Philip Morris acquired majority ownership of its lone competitor, Fortune Tobacco in 2010.

National Tobacco Administration Welcomes Help From Mighty Corporation

Edgardo Zaragoza, head of the National Tobacco Administration (NTA), welcomed the assistance provided to local tobacco farmers by Mighty Corporation or Mighty Corp, a local cigarette manufacturing company.

“The more players dealing directly with the farmers, the better and merrier. This is a big boost to the tobacco industry,” Zaragoza said.

According to him, Mighty Corp’s social outreach programs would increase the assistance provided to farmers and their families and will encourage other cigarette industry players to do the same.

Mighty Corporation has provided 90 diesel-fed water pumps and 16 power tillers to farmers in the provinces of Abra, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Pangasinan, Isabela and Cagayan, the country’s top producers of yellow leaf, the variety used for cigarettes.  Mighty Corp will buy 10 million kilograms of tobacco leaves, one fifth of the industry’s total production. The company has also provided 100 scholarships to high school graduate  children of  tobacco farmers.

 

Mighty Corporation Help Boost Farmers’ Production

Mighty Corporation or Mighty Corp announced that it would double its purchase of tobacco from 5 million to 10 million kilos this year, which would boost the income of local tobacco farmers in the area.

NAFTAC president Mario Cabasal said that Mighty Corp is all set to break the farmers’ dependence on giant tobacco companies, who enter into contract with the poor farmers to make them plant high nicotine varieties.

“The farmers now have a buyer for low-grade tobacco,” Cabasal said.

Mighty Corporation, a Filipino-owned company, produces low-priced brand of cigarettes, which are popular among the masses. The company also provided the farmers 83 units of water pumps and 16 hand tractors.

Aside from that, Mighty Corp also sponsored 100 college scholarship for children of tobacco farmers in La Union.

Mighty Corporation Executive Vice President Oscar Barrientos said that his company will compete with the giant tobacco companies in the purchase of tobacco, which they needed as cigarette filler.

Mr. Edgardo Zaragosa, Administrator of the National Tobacco Administration, welcomed the entry of Mighty Corporation in the market, which he said is good because competition in tobacco trading will help farmers, especially if the price is right.

 

Mighty Corporation Helps Fish Pond Operators

Mighty Corporation of Mighty Corp donated tobacco dust to fish pond operators.  The local cigarette manufacturer said that tobacco dust is an excellent natural pond conditioner.

“We are going to help the National Tobacco Administration promote the use of tobacco dust by donating to our thousands of fish pond owners and operators all over the country,” Mighty Corp executive vice president Oscar Barrientos said in a statement.

Mighty Corporation aims to help both fish pond operators and local tobacco producers.

Barrientos said the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) was promoting tobacco dust to control the population of snails and other fish pond predators, as this was “an effective and economic option to replace highly toxic and cyanide-based chemicals used in the preparation or sterilization of fishponds.”

He also said that Mighty Corp aims to increase the income of the tobacco-growing industry by buying 10 million tobacco leaves from local farmers all over the country.  It allotted P700,000 for the purchase of green leaves.

NTA manufactures Tobacco Dust Plus at a plant in Sto. Tomas, La Union, where leaves are re-dried and pulverized.  Tobacco dust promotes the growth of lablab, an algae and natural fish food, and serves as pond floor conditioner. Pond owners and operators use it to prepare or sterilize fish ponds before stocking fingerlings there.

Mighty Corporation also aims to help local tobacco farmers earn more with a projected increase in the production of tobacco leaves and tobacco dust while helping pond owners and operators and the environment as well.

Farmers Get Production Boost From Mighty Corporation

National Federation of Tobacco Farmers Association and Cooperatives (NAFTAC) President Mario Cabasal announced that local cigarette manufacturer Mighty Corporation of Mighty Corp will double its tobacco purchase to 10 million kilograms this year.

Mr. Cabasal added that this move by Mighty Corp would probably break the farmers’ dependence on giant tobacco companies, who enter into contract with farmers to make them plant high nicotine varieties as well as boost their income.

Mighty Corporation is the only Filipino-owned company tobacco manufacturing company in the Philippines that produces low-priced brands of cigarettes, which are popular among the masses.

Administrator Edgardo Zaragosa the National Tobacco Administration (NTA), welcomed the entry of Mighty Corporation in the market which he said is good because competition in tobacco trading will help farmers get more from their labor especially if the price is right.

 

Mighty Corp Gives Tobacco Farming in the Philippines a 10 Million Boost

The National Federation of Tobacco Farmers and Cooperatives, Inc. (NAFTAC) signed over the weekend a joint project agreement with local cigarette manufacturer Mighty Corporation or Mighty Corp, to pursue projects that are designed to uplift the lives of local farmers in Northern Luzon.

The event which carries the theme “Sama-Sama Tayong Pilipino sa Pagyabong ng Industriya ng Tabako” was represented by Mighty Corp President Edilberto Adan, Mighty Corp Executive Vice President Oscar Barrientos, NAFTAC Head Mario Cabasal and some 200 farmer leaders.  The official signing was held in Bauang, La Union.

The momentous occasion was highlighted by a consultative meeting between Mighty Corp executives and the farmer leaders of Pangasinan, La Union, Abra and the Ilocos provinces where the latter announced a pledge to fund a P10-million three-pronged programs that will help farmers produce better quality tobaccos.

The program includes the donation of support farm implements like irrigation pumps and tractors, the sponsoring of 100 college students through a comprehensive scholarship program grant for the dependents of tobacco farmers and the institutional support for the annual search for outstanding tobacco farmers and cooperatives.

“We are happy that  Mighty Corp has stood firm on its commitments to help the 65,000 strong tobacco farmers in the Philippines with their pronouncements this year to purchase 10-million kilograms of tobacco leaves and the P10-million outreach projects for tobacco farmers,” said Cabasal during the event.

NAFTAC’s Ilocos Norte chapter got 2 tractors and 12 water pumps; Ilocos Sur Bantay chapter got 2 tractors and 3 water pumps; Ilocos Sur-Candon Chapter got 2 tractors and 20 water pumps; La Union Chapter got 2 tractors and 14 water pumps; Abra Chapter got 2 tractors and 11 water pumps; Pangasinan Chapter got 2 tractors and 13 water pumps; Cagayan Chapter got 2 tractors and 5 water pumps; and Isabela Chapter got 2 tractors and 5 water pumps.

Wong Chu King Foundation Lauded by Philippine Bishops for Charitable Projects

Filipino-owned Bulacan-based cigarette manufacturer Mighty Corporation also known as Mighty Corp was commended by Church leaders for their commitments to charitable and apostolic works.

San Fernando City, La Union Bishop Rodolfo Beltran has praised the works of Mighty Corp through its Wong Chu King Foundation.

According to Bishop Beltran, the foundation has so far donated to church projects funding the education of poor children in Lagawe, Bontoc province that includes four seminarians and students of vocational courses like sewing, weaving and hair-styling.

“The parents of these students are low-income farmers producing only for local consumption,” Bishop Beltran said. “So you can imagine the positive impact this kind of support has for them.” he added.

Wong Chu King Foundation, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm of Mighty Corp was lauded for helping the church spread the message of faith, hope and love in the Philippines and for prioritizing apostolic works and education in its programs and projects.

Bishop Beltran also cited Mighty Corp and the Wong Chu King Foundation for their recent outreach project for 65,000 organized tobacco farmers in Northern Luzon.

The La Union bishop has witnessed the signing of a joint project agreement between Mighty Corp and some 200 farmer leaders of the National Federation of Tobacco Farmers and Cooperatives Inc. (NAFTAC) coming from Pangasinan, La Union, Abra, Cagayan, Isabela, Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur.

Mighty Corp donated 16 hand tractors worth 2.5 million pesos and 90 irrigation pumps worth 1.1 million pesos to the group.

“I’m quite happy about all these projects.  It’s a big lift for our farmers, not only in La Union but also the whole of Northern Luzon,” Bishop Beltran said. “This is something very beautiful as the hand tractors and water pumps encourage our farmers to use modern methods of agriculture.”

The foundation also facilitated the renovation of the Basilica Minore of the Our Lady of Piat Church in Cagayan three years ago as well as the renovation of the Diocesan Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Naic, Cavite last year.

Auxiliary Bishop Ricardo Baccay of Tuguegarao City described Wong Chu King Foundation’s initiatives as, “a step in the right direction. My diocese, like all dioceses, have serious concerns.  If Wong Chu King Foundation is really out to help schools, putting up libraries is the best form of help it can give.”

Tuguegarao Archbishop Emeritus Diosdado Tamalayan meanwhile added that she has known for many years Mrs. Nelia Wongchuking, the chairman of the board of trustees of the Wong Chu King Foundation.

“She and her family are great devotees of the Our Lady of Piat.  They have built a chapel in Malolos City, Bulacan dedicated to the Our Lady of Piat which was blessed by many bishops way back in 2012 including Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales.” the Archbishop said.

Wong Chu King Foundation was created in 1990 in memory of the family patriarch Wongchuking, an avowed philanthropist who was concerned for the plight of the poor and underprivileged people in his time.  The foundation also aims to encourage and promote education through scholarship programs and raise funds for other charitable, cultural and educational projects.