Newly open Local Food Terminal in Panay enables upland farmers to access consumers directly. Further, the 11.8 million food terminal also acquires solar-powered cold facility.
According to the report of Business World, Korea International Cooperation Agency’s (KOICA) Panay Island Upland Sustainable Rural Development Project (PIU-SRDP) with the Department of Agriculture-Western Visayas (DA-6) carried out the Local Food Terminal.
Based on the statement of Maria Teresa T. Solis, head of the DA-6 Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Division, eliminating the middlemen which control the farm gate prices of agri-commodities, is one of the key objectives of setting-up the food terminal.
Respectively, Jose Pepe Caoyonan, chairman of the San Miguel Farmers’ Cooperative, said the project means lower transportation costs. Farmers do not need to bring harvests in Ilo-ilo City, Panay’s main market.
Moreover, establishing the Local Food Terminal in Panay does not just lesser the transportation cost, but mainly aims in lowering costs to reach potential buyers.
Most significantly, the Local Food Terminal made farmers’ income to increase due to the direct access to buyers and how expenses have been cut.
Source:
SKorea-backed Panay terminal cuts out the middleman for farmers