DA to launch direct intervention on farm gate prices

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO— The Department of Agriculture (DA) will launch its first direct intervention on agriculture farm gate prices in a bid to address the need for farmers to get the best prices for their products and assure consumers of efficient and sufficient supply.

The DA will stage the third TienDA Farmers and Fisher Folks Outlet, a program aimed at making available to Metro Manila consumers farm products at farm gate prices on October 28.

The main feature of the TienDA will be the launching of the Karne, Isda Supply Strategy Para sa Masa or KISS PM, according to Agriculture Secretary Manny Pinol.

In cooperation with Sanden Philippines, a company which sells chillers, freezers, refrigerated vans and cold storage facilities, and the stakeholders of the fish and broiler industries, TienDA will offer dressed chicken, meat and fish at very low prices, much lower than in the markets of Metro Manila, Pinol added.

Pinol said that products will be displayed in chillers to be provided by Sanden while the rest will be kept in freezers and later in stand-alone cold storage compartments which could keep up to two tons of the products.

From the Army Headquarters in Fort Bonifacio, the same facilities will later be set up at other Commissary outlets of the Philippine Navy, the Philippine Air Force, the Philippine National Police and in Camp Aguinaldo so that soldiers’and policemen’s families will have access to low-priced farm pr odu ct s.

“Depending on the reaction of the consumers, the KISS PM marketing innovation will later move to housing subdivisions and population centres through the neighborhood sarisari stores. I believe this is the most effective way of helping our farmers get a better price for their produce while at the same time ensuring our consumers of affordable food,” Pinol said.