CLARK International Airport Corp. (CIAC) said it will update the feasibility studies within the year for a food trading hub in Clark City, and expects to award the project to a private-sector partner by late 2025.
The updating of (feasibility) studies will happen this year, as will coming up with the terms of reference for the public tender,” CIAC President Arrey A. Perez said at the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Food Security Forum late Wednesday.
CIAC is working with the ADB in reviewing the feasibility study as well as the terms of reference for the $152-million food hub.
The Clark National Food Terminal project is expected to do away with the need for wholesalers and major retailers to travel to Metro Manila to access produce, Mr. Perez said.
CIAC hopes to conduct the public tender for the food hub by next year, Mr. Perez said, with awarding possibly by the third or fourth quarter of 2025.
The proposed national food hub would be built on a 64-hectare site inside the Clark Civil Aviation Complex, Mr. Perez said last year.
The food hub would also house cold storage facilities, as well as key services like research and quality control, warehousing, food processing, international shipping, marketing services, and trading for domestic and foreign markets.
It will also be linked to a railway connected to Subic port.
The hub will also be near the sites of cargo companies FedEx and UPS, as well as satellite agri-trading hubs in northern Luzon.
The complex’s logistics access will give producers “the ability to send their products all over the Philippines and even in international markets,” Mr. Perez said. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz
