Clean Food Facility in Butuan City a Result of Meaningful Partnership with the Private Sector

The newly opened 4,000 sq. meter storage facility in Bancasi, Butuan City

Those of us engaged in development and diplomacy often talk of the need to link the public and private sectors.  We talk of public, private partnerships or PPP and the need for a strong and dynamic private sector as a way forward to achieve meaningful development.  To be truly engaged in sustainable development in a country like the Philippines, we have to do a better job of working with private firms to support their efforts to create jobs and provide necessary services.

In a rapidly growing country like the Philippines, one concern is the ability of the country’s public and private suppliers to provide infrastructure and logistics that will assure food requirements are met.  The Caraga region or Region XIII is a growing region that needs to catch up to the levels of development seen in other parts of the Philippines.  The Caraga region has the potential to greatly increase the amount of food it produces and ships out of the region as well. 

The United States Department of Agriculture (http://www.usda.gov) is proud to be part of the effort to create more efficient food logistics networks in the Caraga region. 

Through USDA funding for the Philippine Cold Chain Project (http://www.winrockpccp.org), a partnership between Happy Enterprise Inc. and PCCP implementer, Winrock International  was created to develop a model for dry warehousing and food storage that will support the trade of agricultural products in Caraga regionUnder the partnership, the warehouse operated by Happy Enterprise was expanded into a 4,000 square meter facility with a stocking space of 38,000 cubic meters that meets national and international standards for clean food storage.  

As the Caraga region grows, so too does the requirement for safe and sanitary storage of perishable and non-perishable food products.  And it is not only food for humans that requires such storage capacity but also livestock feeds.  One deciding factor for Happy Enterprise to build these new facilities was the expanding requirement for increased storage for livestock feeds by Pilmico Foods Corporation.

Pilmico, the food arm of Aboitiz group (http://www.aboitiz.com), has increased its feed sales in the region in part because of the successes encountered by working with PCCP to improve swine genetics and swine fattening in the region.  As a result, more warehouse storage space is needed.  In fact, I am told that all the space in this new facility is already rented out or designated for specific existing food storage needs and that even more warehouse space is needed. 

Warehouses are not architecturally diverse.  Most often they do not have windows and are protected by large doors and security systems.  It is difficult for any passersby to know what is going on inside.  But warehouses are the first place that relief agencies go to when a disaster strikes as a secure and weather proof warehouse contains the buffers of food supply that are needed to help people survive after disaster strikes.

Warehouses form an integral part of clean food delivery in the farm-to-plate chain.  Warehouses are also the place where cold storage capacity is developed for products like vegetables, fruits, meat and fish.  

Right now the Caraga region has very limited cold store warehouse capacity.  It is my hope that in the near future, that public, private partnership in the Caraga region can also help to bring expanded capacity to cold store warehousing in the region and that imports and exports of perishable and non-perishable food products can increase. 

The opening of the 4,000 square meter storage facility in Butuan City was a result of meaningful partnership with the private sector.  US Deputy Chief of Mission Michael Klechesky and USDA Counsellor Raph Bean led the inauguration of the facility on February 18. (Witnessing the ceremony were Agusan del Norte Governor Angel Amante-Matba (2nd from right), Butuan City Mayor Ferdinand Amante (Far right), and guests from Aboitiz and Pilmico.

With a stocking capacity of 38,000 cubic meters, clean storage for perishable and non-perishable food items will no longer be a problem for traders in Agusan del Norte and Butuan City.