Biggest Ilocos Region rice plant built in Piddig

By Freddie G. Lazaro

PIDDIG, Ilocos Norte — A rice processing plant, considered the biggest in Region 1, is under construction in this town some 18.3 km east of Laoag City.

The project aims to establish a sustainable rice business enterprise through processing palay produced by the farmers in Ilocos Norte from milling to packaging for distribution for sale to the public markets in the Ilocos and other regions in the country.

Mayor Eddie Guillen said the target of the plant, which expected to start its operation this April, is to process all palay grains produced by the farmers from milling to packaging for distribution for sale to the public markets in the Ilocos and other regions in the country.

Records from the Ilocos Norte’s Provincial Planning and Development Office in 2012 showed that at least 334,694 metric towns of rice were harvested from the 65,478 hectares of farm land.

Instead of bringing the palay grains produced by our farmers in the province for processing in Bulacan; we can now do it in our town once the processing plant will operate with a lesser cost,” he said.

The processing plant is said to be the biggest in Ilocos region as it will build in a 3,000 square meters lot. It has four components to include milling section, packaging section, drying section and a warehouse.

“Once the plant is fully–operational, we will probably have the least selling cost of rice compared with rice prices at public markets in Bulacan,” he said.