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Friday, March 29, 2024

DA building eight Apayao warehouses

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The Department of Agriculture said Monday eight warehouses worth P86.63 million due for construction in Apayao through the Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) are expected to help improve the connectivity of farmers to markets.

Apayao’s provincial agriculturist Prudencio Bosing said one major issue facing agricultural development was the distance of Apayao to markets. 

He said individual farmers could not bring their products to big markets because of hauling costs and the required volume.

Bosing said traders mostly controlled farm gate prices. 

The provincial local government unit said costs could be minimized with the warehouses serving as consolidation centers for agricultural produce, such as coffee and banana.

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“Some of banana fruits sold in Pangasinan, Clark and Manila are sourced here. One big issue is that farmers lose potential profits—we can’t control the traders,” Bosing said.

He added that banana traders usually bought the fruits by piece and not by weight.

“Farmers have decried this system and hoped that one day, the province would build a bagsakan center or warehouse drop-off point where farmers could [collectively] negotiate with buyers,” Bosing said.

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