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Friday, March 29, 2024

Tomato paste producer readies $25-m expansion

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Tomato paste maker NS International Inc. will put up a $25-million tomato paste plant in Batangas province by 2016 as part of an expansion program.

NS International president and chief Nuccio Saverio said the expansion was needed because Philippines remained a net importer of tomato paste from China.

“Given our very small production capacity, we import about 40,000 metric tons of tomato paste from China. This expansion will partly address the supply and limit importation, although not as much as we want too,” he said at the sidelines of a visit by an Italian trade delegation Wednesday at the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry Building at the Bonifacio Global City.

The Philippines imports about 40,000 MT of tomato paste yearly. Tomato paste is used to manufacture tomato sauce, tomato catsup and other sauces and condiments in which tomato is a primary ingredient.

The new facility will be located in a consolidated farm land in Batangas with a production capacity of 7,000 metric tons a year.

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The company expects to start commercial production by 2016. It plans to engage farmers to plant tomato and other crops under a contract growing agreement.

Saverio teamed up with fellow Italian investors to fund the project.

NS International is currently operating its first venture into the tomato paste manufacturing in Santa, Ilocos Sur with the provincial government as partner.

After nearly four years in operation, the company is beefing up its Ilocos Sur facility to increase production capacity to 5,000 MT by the end of 2015.

NS International supplies tomato paste to Del Monte Philippines, RAM Food Products Inc and a company that supplies tomato sauce to Shakey’s Philippines. It employs 1,500 farmers on a contractual basis.

Saverio said his company was also interested in putting up a repacking facility that may cost about P50 million in additional investment, once the Batangas plant is up and running.

A purely Filipino company, Northern Foods Corp., is into tomato paste manufacturing long before NS International started producing the same commodity.

Partly-owned by former National Livelihood Development Corp., it engages 3,000 Ilocano farmers to handpick red-ripe tomatoes in a yearly contract growing arrangement.

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