Low-cost produce markets set to open in Manila, Quezon City, Taguig City

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) is scheduled to open stores selling low-cost produce in some of Metro Manila’s poorer neighborhoods, including Payatas in Quezon City and Baseco in Manila, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said Sunday.

The stores, known as TienDA Malasakit outlets, will be op[erated by women’s groups, supported by Local Government Units (LGUs) and will sell vegetables, fruit, rice, sugar and other basic food items.

The DA also plans to open three or four such outlets in Taguig by the first week of October.

“With the establishment of the Malasakit Stores in Metro Manila and other major population centers of the country later, it is expected that the stranglehold of traders and middlemen of the food supply in the country will finally loosen up,” Mr. Piñol said in a statement.

The system works on the basis of LGU-issued passbooks to verify that residents are from the intended areas and prevent middlemen from buying and reselling the goods, according to Mr. Piñol.

The DA staged a two-day vegetable festival last week at the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) compound in San Andres, Manila, selling goods from Bukidnon at below-market prices.

At last week’s market, carrots were sold at P95 per kilo, cabbage at P70, chili peppers, or sili, at P80, refined sugar at P49 per kilo, and cardava banana, or saba, at P17.

“There’s no need to import, we have a lot of vegetables,” Mr. Piñol said during the event.

He also said acknowledged reports that some buyers left the San Andres market without paying, noting that the event “was marred by reports from farmers that some buyers walked off with vegetables and fruits in plastic bags without paying for the items.”

“The farmers, many of them first-timers in Metro Manila, were obviously overwhelmed by the waves of people who swarmed their booths. Since it was their first experience to sell their produce directly, they were not able to cope with the weighing and the payment,” he added.

Meanwhile, Mr. Piñol said that he will present to the National Food Authority (NFA) Council on Monday a proposal to ban private importers from importing higher-grade varieties of rice, and limit them to grades that the NFA will buy.

“On Monday, I will present to the NFA Council my proposal that private importers should not be allowed to import fancy rice, which is expensive. It doesn’t bring down the price,” according to Mr. Piñol, noting that premium grades of rice sell for about P58 per kilo.

He said that premium rice tends to set the trend for the rest of the market, driving domestic rice prices higher as well,” Mr. Piñol said.

Mr. Piñol is the new chairman of the NFA Council after the NFA, along with the Philippine Coconut Authority and the Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority, was returned to the supervision of the DA on Sept. 19, after an executive order issued by President Rodrigo R. Duterte. —