Consortium of coops organized for Davao City food terminal

DAVAO CITY—A consortium of cooperatives is being organized at the Davao City Food Terminal Complex (DFTC) in Toril to ensure the steady f low of agriculture products assist farmers in securing a fair price for their produce.

The Davao City Cooperative Development Office (CCDO) has listed the farmers and agricultural cooperatives that will form the consortium.

CCDO head Luzminda Eblamo said her office has identified 20 cooperatives that will become part of the consortium. “We are organizing the consortium, we already have interim officers,” Eblamo said.

The consortium would serve as the trading partner of the DFTC and it would adopt the agricultural supply chain model “wherein agricultural producer cooperatives would supply agricultural products.”

“There will also be consolidators, the big cooperatives, that will buy the products of the other cooperatives. Marketing cooperatives will help (sell the products).”

Cooperatives that are already working with the DFTC include the Manuel Guianga and the Sirib Growers and the Employees Multipurpose Cooperative (Magsige).

Other cooperatives that will be tapped to join the consortium are the Davao Region Agriculture Cooperative (Draco) and the Biao Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative (Barbco). More cooperatives may still join and expand the consortium’s membership, according to Eblamo.

She said the composition of the consortium would be completed in February.

A memorandum of agreement is also being finalized. It will be signed by the City Agriculturist Office as operator of the DFTC, and the trading partners.