Agribusiness
In terms of sales volume and value, agribusiness is the most important economic component of Baras, posting an approximate sales of 350 million annually. The municipality’s proximity to Metro Manila and its topography makes it ideal for agribusiness with a focus on livestock raising.
Swine and broiler make up the biggest portions of the total estimated agribusiness sales value, 62% and 34% respectively. This is followed by white egg and quail egg production, which are comparatively much smaller operations. Finally, there have been experimental and still to be developed production ventures of salted eggs, native eggs, mushroom, hito and tilapia.
By location, the agribusiness farms are divided into two groups: those at the north near the Marikina-Infanta Road (Foremost, Vera /Milestone, RFM, Everest, Galaxy, Mingaw Farm) and those at the south near the Manila East Road (Global, Marianas, CBM, Bade, Buntan, Everest, Lorenzo, Baras Integrated Farm, Pisana, Montevista, Aujero, Sir Knight, Heritage, Robles Farm, Naval Farm, Ross Farm, Abalos Farm, Bancud Farm, Balagot Farm, Guevara Farm). The cause of this is the bad condition of the Baras-Lagundi and Baras-Pinugay Roads which are supposed to link the northern elevated lands to the southern midlands and lowlands. The effect of this is that the agribusiness target markets are also divide into two, with the Marikina-Infanta Road accessing the Antipolo and Quezon markets while the Manila East connecting with the Morong, Tanay and Binangonan markets. Though both groups have Metro Manila as their main market, this also means they have different delivery routes towards the metropolis, coming from the same town. Aside from the loss of market reach, another effect of the poor farm-to-market roads is the high transportation costs incurred by both suppliers and buyers.
Consultations with the agribusiness sector pointed out other urgent problems with regard to conducting business in the municipality. A garbage dumpsite may be found on a cliff at the Baras-Pinugay roadside. Needless to say, it is very ill-located, with the wastes cascading down the slope and polluting a vital stream at the bottom. Worse, some of the wastes are not even originating from within Baras. There has also been a proliferation of squatters along the Manila-East Road. This development, if left unabated, will obviously result in security and sanitation problems. Further, both the placement of the dumpsite and formation of squatter colonies cause visual and olfactory intrusion to prospective tourists and investors.
Source: Baras Comprehensive Land Use Plan
