BAGUIO CITY – The Clark International Airport Corporation (CIAC) said that the agriculture industry stakeholders will directly benefit from the proposed establishment of the 50-hectare Clark national food hub because their products can be distributed in various markets around the country through a system that will be crafted for this purpose.
CIAC president and chief executive officer Joseph Jojit Alcazar said that the proposed Clark national food hub will also allow the effective and efficient exchange of products from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao through similar hubs that will be established by the agriculture department with its partners to lessen the interventions of middlemen and ensure cheaper prices of the produce from the farms that will result to the country’s stable food security.
He claimed that the first phase of the project will be the construction of the food hub’s infrastructure to be undertaken by the agriculture department within a 12-hectare property of the corporation while the second phase that will involve private partners will occupy a 38-hectare area of the complex.
However, Alcazar did not discount the fact that the implementation of the 2-phased project will be done simultaneously because of the active participation of the private sector that is willing to infuse fresh capital for the enhancement of the country’s agriculture sector.
The CIAC official disclosed that one of the facilities as part of the national food hub is a state-of-the-art cold storage plant that will contribute in providing a cold chain system with the support of prestigious cold storage companies wanting to invest in putting up a reliable cold chain system to help in prolonging the shelf life of perishable agricultural products for these to command better buying prices once released to the markets.
Earlier, the CIAC and the agriculture department entered into a memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the put up of a national food hub within the Clark international airport complex with the operational support of the Food Terminal, Inc. and other interested partners to advance the state of the distribution of agricultural products to the different markets in the country.
Alcazar stated that the operation of the Clark national food hub will be dependent on the agriculture department’s ability to complete the facilities under the first phase of the project that will significantly address the gap in the agriculture value chain from the farms to the markets without the interventions of the middlemen.
According to him, among the agricultural products that will be hosted by the food hub are the highland and lowland vegetables and flowers from the agriculture sector of Northern and Central Luzon.
He explained that part of the goal in the put up of the food hub within the Clark airport complex is to be able to avail of the air routes in the airport in transporting the various agricultural products in Luzon to the different markets in exchange for the products of the farmers and the Halal industry from Mindanao and the Visayas as there are already numerous companies availing of the airport’s cargo and logistics services for different types of products being traded locally and internationally.
Alcazar pointed out that food security is one of the major thrusts of the present administration and the agriculture department is looking into all possible ways by which to make available cheap agricultural products in the different markets through the various hubs and lessen the unnecessary interventions of middlemen who are taking advantage of the farmers limited distribution capacities.
He emphasized that the CIAC is the operator of the State over the property in Clark that is why it is trying to work with concerned government agencies and private partners to maximize the potentials of the area to be instrumental in spurring the country’s economy through various modes like the put up of the national food hub, expansion of the airport’s operation, establishment of the proposed regional aviation campus, among other pending proposals, for future developments in the complex. By Dexter A. See
