Alsons Development and Investment Corp. (Alsons Dev) is flipping the script on Philippine aquaculture.
What started as a standard, fully integrated operation has evolved into a community-empowering supply chain that lifts thousands of small fish farmers, chief executive officer Miguel Dominguez told the Makati Business Club.
“We now source about 90 percent of our supply from small fish farmers, buying nearly P1 billion worth of milkfish from them every year,” Dominguez said.
That’s not charity, it’s strategy. Alsons Dev turned local producers into reliable partners.
The impact is massive. Alsons Dev runs the country’s largest commercial hatchery, pioneered milkfish exports to Filipino communities abroad, and now accounts for more than half of the nation’s milkfish exports worldwide.
Back home, over 2,000 workers keep the wheels turning across hatcheries, grow-out farms, and processing plants in Mindanao and the Visayas.
Dominguez isn’t just fishing for numbers, he is fishing for innovation. “The average tilapia farm in the Philippines yields about four tons per hectare per year. In our farms, we produce about 100 tons per hectare annually,” he said.
That is a productivity leap powered by research, tech, and partnerships.
The real game-changer?
The shift to an inclusive supply-chain model. Farmers are guaranteed prices and purchase volumes, while banks like Philippine Business Bank, the Development Bank of the Philippines, and Land Bank provide financing support.
“This approach removes market risk for farmers and helps them become bankable,” Dominguez said.
In other words: they farm smarter, earn steadier, and keep communities thriving. It is proof that inclusive business isn’t just good ethics, it is good economics.
