Philippines: State Tobacco Agency Opens Food Processing Center in Ilocos Sur

Source from:  GMA News 11/05/2013

The National Tobacco Administration has opened a food processing and trading center in Ilocos Sur that will provide tobacco farmers with additional sources of income.

The 1.5-hectare NTA Agri-Pinoy Tobacco Farmers Food Processing and Trading Center in Brgy. Nanguneg, East Narvacan includes a slaughterhouse with a capacity of 200 heads a day and a chicken dressing plant with a capacity of 200 heads per hour.

The plant will process meat products such as bacon, ham, bagnet, longganisa, tapa, and tocino, which would then be sold directly in "bagsakan centers," supermarkets, government offices, hospitals and other institutions.

The facility is part of the agency's Integrated Farming and Other Income Generating Activities Project, which aims to provide tobacco farmers with an alternative source of income, as tobacco is only harvested once a year.

"We have been training [tobacco farmers] in integrated farming systems which include livestock and poultry raising. To increase their earnings, they need to add value to their products, hence the need for the food porcessing center," said NTA corporate planning manager Rex Teoxon.

The facility cost P165 million and will be allotted another P35 million as working capital, said NTA Administrator Edgardo Zaragoza. It will initially be run by the NTA and will source hogs from Ilocos Sur and Abra, and hog and chicken breeder stock from Universal Robina Corporation.

According to Zaragoza, 7,693 tobacco farmers in the region have been training in backyard hog and poultry raising since June.

The facility is set to start processing pork in the second week of November and poultry in the first quarter of 2014. Enditem