New cargo airline seen to help local farmers, ranchers

Local farmers expressed support for Tony Pellegrino’s plan to establish a cargo airline, Cargo Air Bridge, saying that the project will help the agriculture industry in the Commonwealth.

Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council chair Ramon B. Camacho praised Pellegrino on Friday “for taking action” to help farmers.

“This cargo [airline] will address the issue of expensive freight cost, which hampers farmers in shipping their produce within the CNMI and to Guam,” he said.

With the CNMI’s economic situation, Camacho said that venturing into farming will be beneficial for the entire community.

Sabalu Farmers Market president Isidoro T. Cabrera said he supports Pellegrino’s CAB venture “100 percent.”

“I personally will be investing my money there and purchase stocks,” he said in a phone interview.

According to Cabrera, the presence of a cargo airline company will increase agricultural production of local farmers as they can now market and sell their commodities to other islands.

“Right now, we’re very limited. We’re only producing for our domestic market,” he told Saipan Tribune.

With the high cost of freight, Cabrera said CAB is a venture that is “very attractive and beneficial” and is “something that local farmers have been waiting for a long time.”

“Because Mr. Pellegrino has the resources and capability, he’s putting up his money to help revive our agriculture industry. It will improve our economy,” he added.

Camacho said that with a cargo airline in the horizon, a farmers’ cooperative is more imperative now.

“If you work on exporting agricultural products, you talk about consistency. …If we put this in a concept of a co-op, then the co-op will handle everything for the farmers,” he explained.

Camacho said the farmers’ support group, composed of the council, the Department of Land and Natural Resources, and the Northern Marianas College-Cooperative Research Extension and Education Services, will be meeting to discuss the prospects of a farmers’ co-op.

“We’re waiting for a land designation where we can build the co-op but I talked to Tony who said he has an available property in Garapan. We’re going to look into it,” he said.

Cabrera, who is the agriculture consultant of NMC-CREES, said the program will be involved in the educational process on the farmers’ side. This process includes the teaching farmers the variety of produce they need to grow and standardized packaging for all products.

“We need to know the demands of our buyers and consumers. We have to know what they want,” he added.