Socio Economic Profile

The City of Malaybalay is mainly an agricultural area, and its products include rice, corn, sugarcane, vegetables, legumes, root crops and commercial crops such as rubber, coffee, banana and pineapple. In the past years, corn used to be the predominant crop in the City. But as the corn areas gave way to sugarcane, agri-farms (poultry & hog), and residential areas, sugarcane (306,600 metric tons) and rice (30,318 metric tons) came out recently as the predominant crops in terms of production volume. These products are usually sold in the local market, or in nearby municipalities of the province. There are also farmers producing a larger volume of corn and rice who sell their products in Cagayan de Oro.
Agri-based industries, primarily poultry and piggery, now flourish in the City. These farms are assisted by big corporations such as San Miguel, Purefoods, Monterey and Swift. Other agri-based industries in the City include Asian Hybrid Philippines (feeds processing), and Monastery Farms (peanuts and other preserved foods). Also notable are the 12 cattle ranches that produce an average of 470 heads yearly.

Data from the CMO – Business Permits & Licensing Division shows that 95.87% of the establishments in the City belong to the service sector. Looking at the breakdown, sari-sari stores (37%) make up majority of the establishments in this sector, followed by trade/wholesale/retails (21%) and other, social and personal services (14%). Industry sector and agriculture sector only make up only 2.27% and 1.9% respectively of all establishments.

The City Planning and Development Office collected data from DTI, CMO – BPLD, and the City Agriculture Office to get the distribution of employment per industrial sector. The result showed that 70% of employment is in the farming/ crop production sector followed by government agencies and commercial/private establishments. Agri-industries and service sectors registered only about 1.63% and 5.99% respectively. The lowest is the manufacturing/processing sector at only 0.36 %.

The City’s scenic natural endowments have also produced spring and mountain resorts, and there are five (5) plazas/nature parks which have been developed. Other beautiful sites such as natural growth forest, industrial tree plantation sites, mountains, falls, rivers and caves are still to be developed for eco-tourism.