Mighty Corp and Wong Chu King Foundation Give Back to Farmers

Mighty Corporation (Mighty Corp), the only wholly Filipino-owned cigarette company in the Philippines, has recently forged an agreement with the National Federation of Tobacco Growers’ Association and Cooperatives (NAFTAC) that aims to uplift the lives of tobacco farmers.  A move that is seen to pave the way for outreach projects for tobacco farmers in the Ilocos and Cagayan Valley provinces.

Mighty Corp, represented by company President Edilberto Adan and Executive Vice President Oscar Barrientos, signed an agreement with NAFTAC National President Mario Cabasal to pursue joint projects that will benefit tobacco farmers under the former’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) program.

To date, the Bulacan-based cigarette manufacturer has already delivered 90 diesel-fed water pumps and 16 units of power tillers to various farm groups in the provinces of Abra, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Pangasinan, Isabela and Cagayan - the country’s top producers of the yellow leaf tobacco.

Aside from farm tools and equipment, Mighty Corp has also committed to donate funds for the college education of 100 new high school graduates who are children of tobacco farmers under the three year-old scholarship program of the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) to give them a chance of a brighter future, for the kids and their respective families.

NTA Administrator Edgar D. Zaragoza firmly believes that the CSR programs of Mighty Corp will boost the tobacco industry after the company has also expressed its desire to support the NTA’s yearly search for the best tobacco farmers in the country.  

“The more players dealing directly with the farmers, the better and merrier,” Zaragoza said.

Local tobacco farmers have been producing an average of 70 million kilos of the golden leaf in the past five years, half of which was sold to cigarette manufacturers, the half exported to markets abroad. Mighty Corp has committed to buy 10 million kilograms of tobacco leaves directly from the farmers. This represents one-fifth of tobacco leaves sold to local cigarette manufacturers.