Farmon Updates: Complaints, Withdrawal, Recovery, and More

This ongoing series aims to provide FarmOn updates to help fellow investors who were left in the dark after the Covid-19 pandemic hit. 

Farmon Philippines

If you're reading this and wondering what this is all about, here's an introductory post with lots of information about FarmOn before and right after the pandemic:

Farmon Philippines Review

Farmon Updates

FarmOn has been sending updates to members through the site dashboard during the height of the pandemic. So at that point, I just waited it out and did nothing. 

Another update included the option to choose a withdrawal option. I chose cash via bank account back in July 2021. Several months after, there was nothing. Some did get paid based on several comments I've seen on Facebook, but I didn't get any. 

So I chose a different route by the end of 2021, hoping it's faster. I thought that since they continue to operate, it will be easier to convert the funds to rice instead. I'm happy seeing other users receive their rice sacks in Metro Manila, but there was still nothing for me. 

I sent a follow-up on the community site in early 2022 and got referred to the Pangasinan. Even if pandemic restrictions have eased up, imagine residing in Metro Manila and being referred to the province about 4 hours away. 

Oh well, my hometown is in the same province anyway so I might as well contact their local office when I visit home, which I did in June 2022. The supposed point of contact referred me to another coordinator. I still didn't receive anything though, not even an assurance that I will be informed once rice become available. I thought of showing up at their office but didn't want to waste gas if there was no guarantee, even the coordinator discouraged me from going. 

From hereon, it seems like a dead-end waiting game. Even the Farmon blog has no updates since October 2020:

https://community.farmon.ph/blog

Their Facebook page has not been updated since early this year too. Their pinned comment last January 2022 can at least possibly answer some of the common questions investors have at the moment:

Please allow me to answer your top questions:

1. Why are we posting updates on our operations?

To wit: The pandemic has made FarmOn’s operation infinitely more difficult — we face serious disruptions in supply and logistic chains, product distribution and irregular/declines in demand. Like every other businesses, we are also struggling on these times. Our intention is still the same but more sincere — to win the crisis and able to give back everybody's’ investments.

Now: We are slowly recovering and are able to operate -- we wanted to update you, as an investor, on that.

Profits from our operations are sent directly to withdrawal requests.

2. Why are we still operating?

To recover from the crisis and give back everybody's investments.

3. What happened to the profits generated from our operations?

All profits are sent to investors withdrawal requests.

4. How can you help us?

a. You may refer our for sale assets/properties to possible interested buyers

b. You may refer our products and services to possible interested clients

5. How can you reach us personally?

You may visit us po at our office in Brgy. Mauban, Balungao, Pangasinan. I would be more than willing to show you our current operations.

6. What happened to the queue?

We've been processing requests on queue basis since May 2020 (except on the harvest months when we prioritized Rice Conversion requests).

Farmon Complaints

While it seems like a dead-end, you can continue to hope, pray, or find other means to follow up. 

A group of Overseas Filipino Workers filed a complaint against FarmOn at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). 

On the Facebook group, FarmOn Complaints, some members have contacted the Securities and Exchange Commission and have sent Farmon a demand letter. The rest are mostly just waiting. But you can at least feel support from fellow investors when you share what you've experienced and tried. 

Apart from FB, you may also consider r/phinvest, a Philippine investment community via Reddit for more support. 

I even stumbled upon a Farmon-related change.org petition you may want to sign and share. 

As for me, I will probably just be waiting like everyone else or will try other venues as suggested by some, including contacting popular media outlets, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and more. I'll come back to this post for updates. 

Rice Conversion and Cash Withdrawal

As of July 2022, support retracted the rice conversion option on my account. It's now back to the cash withdrawal method I selected initially.

 

I asked why there was a need to coordinate with their Pangasinan office for the conversion to rice option when I lived in Metro Manila, and their website says they deliver to the National Capital Region. They are no longer delivering now. Welp. 

My account is not eligible for the third option, which is to convert the investment into the property as it falls below the minimum 50,000 pesos requirement. Under this, investors can exchange 50k for every 150 meters of land. This is most likely from Farmon’s farm lots. 

I am not expecting anything from the cash basis option because there was no update about it for several months the first time I did it. After starting from scratch, the priority level and batch/queue number for each fund type have been delayed further. I have a queue number that’s almost at the 1000th line. 

Since the bank deposits are categorized by priority batches A to E depending on the fund type, you won't be receiving everything all at once. Priority A is the actual available balance on your account. Priority B is from investments under Farmon 1.0 and 2.0, covering early 2019. 

There are still those who weren't paid for investments earlier than their period (including me), and this bracket is so delayed now. Prio C covers late 2019 to early 2020 and Prio E is for anything else not covered by the above. I assume Prio D (not on my list) covers 2020 and 2021? I wonder if there was anyone who invested during that time. If there were, I commend their faith in Farmon. 

If you do not need the money at the moment or believe that it’s probably gone for good, you may want to pick the last withdrawal method option. You can lock the total funds for a year in exchange for 4% interest. If I chose this option in early 2020, it would have been about two years by now. I have no idea if those who picked this method have already earned from it.

Farmon's Most Recent Response 

Here's Farmon's most recent response (October 2023) about the pending withdrawal request. 

A recent comment below mentioned how Farmon is replying to follow-ups using the same copy-and-paste responses. True enough, the replies I received (images above and below) are indeed similar.

 

With that, it appears that the same commenter's suggestion seems ideal—to be a "pain in the b*tt for Farmon," including filing lawsuits. This will force them to take action and process your request.

Despite all these setbacks, I am confident that the farming industry will soon recover, hopefully including Farmon. If not, I will consider this as another tuition fee paid for learning.