Philippines: Department of Agriculture to upgrade Ilocos Norte’s tomato processing plant

 “We will extend needed financial assistance to the Northern Foods Corporation (NFC) to make it financially afloat and thus make it attractive for potential investors en route to its privatization,” said Agriculture Secretary Dar during his recent visit to its processing facility in Sarrat town. The tomato processing plant is being managed by the NFC. 
“We are seeking a Peso 26 million (Euro 456,000 or USD 538,000) loan to finance the operations of NFC as it awaits its privatization,” Dar said.  “The firm is also securing an additional Peso 39 million (Euro 685,000 or USD 806,000) loan so it could pay its arrears to farmers who had sold tomatoes during previous harvest seasons,” he added.

The NFC was established in 1984 as a subsidiary of the Livelihood Corp. In the year 2000, it was transferred to the Department of Agriculture. In 2013, the Governance Commission categorized NFC as a government-owned and controlled corporation under its food sector.
Tomato is one of the high-value cash crops in Ilocos Region, with 800 hectares of production area. It is planted from October to December, after the main rice crop. NFC farmer-growers commence tomato harvest in January. NFC processes into tomato paste fresh ripe tomatoes, particularly the “Ilocos Red” variety, sourced from 3,000 farmers, in Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur. Every season, they enter into a contract growing agreement with the NFC that provides technical assistance and arranges financing with lending institutions for fertilizers, pesticides, harvest containers, and other inputs.

With a processing capacity of 500 metric tonnes (mT) of tomatoes per day, the NFC produces about 4,000 mT of tomato paste every processing season, from January to April yearly. NFC supplies tomato paste to leading food chains, fish canners, and tomato sauce and catsup manufacturers in the country, comprising 13 % of the country’s 30,000 metric tonnes yearly consumption.
“The company has an inventory of Peso 120 million (Euro 2.1 million or USD 2.48 million) worth of tomato paste, which they can use to pay out the loan,” Secretary Dar said.

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