COLD STORAGE. A tomato cold storage facility will be constructed on this site in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte. The PHP38-million project is funded by the World Bank under the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) of the Department of Agriculture (DA). (Photo courtesy of the provincial government of Ilocos Norte)
LAOAG CITY – Farmers in the province of Ilocos Norte look forward to the operation of a tomato cold storage facility to help reduce their post-harvest losses due to spoilage.
Funded by the World Bank worth PHP38 million under the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) of the Department of Agriculture (DA), the facility to be managed by the San Joaquin Multi-purpose Cooperative will be constructed in Barangay 1 San Joaquin at the back of the Sarrat gasoline station.
Once completed, Lucresia Ver, vice chair of the San Joaquin Multi-purpose Cooperative, said in a media interview Thursday that the facility will benefit local tomato growers.
Without a storage facility, around 25 percent of their tomato production goes to waste.
"The facility will be constructed on a hectare of land with four rooms,” she said, citing it will be the first tomato cold storage facility to be constructed in the province so far.
The project is eyed to be completed within this year following the ground-breaking ceremony on Wednesday.
Tomato is among the high-value crops of Ilocos Norte with a ready market but with the closure of the Northern Foods Corporation (NFC) that is engaged in tomato paste production in Northern Luzon, many contract growers have shifted to other crops.
Ilocos Region used to supply about 13 percent of the country’s 30,000 metric tons annual consumption of tomato paste.
Around 3,000 tomato growers shifted to other high-value crops following the closure.
Former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte ordered the abolition of NFC as it no longer served its purpose consistent with the national development policy, giving way to the company's privatization.
But the Ilocos Norte government, in cooperation with the DA, has been calling on investors to reactivate the tomato processing plant under new management.
Rice farmers here are encouraged to shift to high-value crops such as tomatoes while the government continues to assist them by providing various agricultural inputs, and processing and market matching of their products. (PNA)
