As a company-owned and operated agri-food enterprise, RDF Feed, Livestock and Foods Inc. (RDF) is leading the agri-food market across the Philippines providing integrated systems and processes to efficiently facilitate every level of the industry’s supply chain. The supply chain spans from breeding programs and farming, through to meat processing – all until end logistical services used to transport its meat products. For RDF, quality is not just a guarantee but a way of life, and so all produce bought from the farm is assured to be top quality and has been produced following the highest of hygiene standards throughout its production.
RDF is divided into four main divisions: poultry, swine, meat retail and distributorship, and finally food and beverage. These areas have allowed RDF to expand their business across a wide range of services in the industry to produce high-quality meat and value-added meat products for retailers in the Philippines. RDF owns a range of industrial facilities such as a feed mill, slaughterhouse, AAA meat-cutting plant, meat processing plant, Fresh Options Meat Shop, and a chain of stand-alone meat shops offering high-quality fresh meat and value-added meat products.
RDF’s feed mill manufactures and supplies high-quality feeds to meet the nutritional needs of the company’s broiler and swine farms. These farms are overseen by a team of veterinarians to closely monitor the health and well-being of the animals. These teams are also responsible for conducting breeding and genetic improvement programs to boost the productivity and efficiency of their animal products. All facilities at the RDF farms, and throughout their processing chains, comply with animal welfare, waste management and government laws to ensure that they are operating in the most efficient and responsible way possible.
A further step to improve the efficiency of its production systems is through its in-house, export-grade abattoir, AAA meat-cutting plant and meat processing plant. All of these are located on one site, to seamlessly move products from one facility to another, whilst being able to closely monitor the produce to ensure that hygiene, safety, and the prevention of contamination regulations are strictly followed. Once products are moved to storage facilities they are separated by product, keeping chicken and pork in separate containers, and are rigorously maintained to ensure that the meat is perfectly conditioned and tracked to regularly rotate the products in line with the age of the meat, before they are sent through RDF’s logistical service.
RDF’s holistic farm-to-table approach makes the company’s operations more efficient and higher in quality, by streamlining its production systems, whilst being able to diversify its markets and address gaps in its supply chain. It is this kind of streamlined innovation and creativity which is so crucial to RDF’s operations and allows their meat products and value-added products to have such a wide span in end markets. Overseeing the logistical movement of the produce allows RDF to use independent distributors to deliver products to wet markets, and sari-sari stores. Furthermore, their value-added meat products, which include products such as chicken nuggets or chicken hotdogs. RDF also distributes its home-grown brands such as Delibite and Our Farms to selected local supermarkets. Consequently, RDF can directly facilitate end markets with products, whilst providing the assurance that every product with the RDF name is guaranteed to be of the highest quality, is locally sourced and has been overseen by a strict level of food safety standards.
However, RDF’s production does not end there, as the company also owns 2 restaurants. The first is a Western-inspired casual dining restaurant called Roberto’s, which largely serves chicken, pork, and beef with a variety of salads, rice meals, burgers and pizzas. Located in Barangay Dolores in San Fernando, Pampanga, the restaurant offers customers a variety of meals using their top-quality meat produce, further extending the operations of the company. The second restaurant is Hot Kitchen by Fresh Options, a restaurant designed for busy urban areas where people are lacking in time to cook themselves delicious hot meals. Therefore, the spot is both dine-in and takeaway providing a range of hot freshly cooked dishes that can quickly satisfy the on-the-go customer with a homecooked meal. The expansion into restaurants sees RDF close the gap between farm and restaurant with a direct supply from its farms to the tables at its restaurants.
However, for RDF education is just as important in ensuring that the same level of standards are maintained throughout its operations through employee training and development programs. There are currently over 2000 employees with RDF, ranging from veterinarians, animal nutritionists, quality assurance specialists, food technologists, chefs, butchers, engineers etc. Therefore, as the company spans such a wide range of operations, the training and development of these staff are equally as broad, but with the combined goal to ensure that the company maintains a high level of excellence in every aspect of its operations. In 2017, RDF opened its university with the aim to better equip employees with the skills and mindset needed to promote a culture of performance excellence throughout the company.
Courses at the university include excellent customer service at basic, supervisory and manager levels, foundational skills, management leadership etc. These courses are promoted to help foster an environment of excellence, development, and support for its employees. Furthermore, RDF signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the University of the Philippines at Los Banos (UPLB) for the internship program of the College of Agriculture and Food Science. The agreement is valid for 5 years and will develop academic and educational cooperation for both parties. Both UPLB and RDF are keenly concerned with improving the training and skills of their students through a range of practical field operations across the spectrum of agriculture services. This first-hand personal experience is what RDF and UPLB hope will contribute greatly toward the improvement of the industry.
We have seen that RDF are not simply a farm or meat producer, but instead are a cohesive but expansive team working across the entire spectrum of the meat and value-added meat industry. The company is working with its people, local distributors, restaurants, and key educational facilities to develop its operations towards continued excellence. Therefore, as a by-product of this excellence, RDF is contributing towards improving the standards across the food industry globally, but representing a way to efficiently and productively breed, farm, process and then distribute meat products across the region. Therefore, as a leading company in the Philippines’ agri-food business, they continue to expand their reach to develop their operations into an expansive, successful ad constantly developing agri-food business.
