September 18, 2012

The Philippine's Department of Agriculture has launched "Agri-Pinoy Trading Centres" for the vegetable growers and livestock raisers to reach their buyers without going through middlemen.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) launched on Friday (Sep 14) four of the trading centres in Benguet, Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija and North Cotabato.

The trading centres are designed to allow more than 12,000 farmers "skip through layers of middlemen" and bring their produce directly to lucrative markets, according to Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala.

Under the PHP913 million (US$22 million) worth of projects, the DA, in partnership with local governments and the private sector, will provide farmers with a venue where they can sell their commodities at fairer prices, he said.

"This is not just about the farmers and the traders. It's all part of a chain system," Alcala said, adding that the objective of the project is to lower and stabilise food prices as well as achieve food self-sufficiency.

The University of Southern Mindanao (USM) Halal Training and Development Centre in North Cotabato will serve as slaughterhouse and trading post for livestock animals like goat and sheep and will serve approximately 1,000 livestock farmers trading around nearby areas, the DA said.

Alcala said the trading centres would be patterned from a project he started as a Quezon representative, the "Sentrong Pamilihan ng Produktong Agrikultura ng Quezon," which was established in 2006 and raised the incomes of the farmers.