Five of the country’s biggest supermarket chains have committed to buy direct from onions and garlic farmers in a move that could end price manipulation by cartelized middlemen and traders, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said today, November 25.
This unprecedented direct access by local growers to local markets nationwide “could be the start of the struggle to dismantle cartels controlling these important commodities in the country,” Piñol added.
He said that with the participation of SM, Rustan’s, ShopWise, SaveMore and Mindanao-based NCCC Mall, “I am seeing the start of the liberation of the country’s onion and garlic farmers from the control of cartels who have monopolized the industry for ages now.”
Piñol had earlier revealed that Filipino onion-garlic farmers have suffered long from depressed prices for their produce because a “few, rich and powerful groups control the industry” through huge importation and unscrupulous practices such as hoarding and smuggling.
Piñol revealed it was Go Negosyo head Joey Concepcion, the Presidential Adviser on Economic Enterprise, who put together the crucial agreement after the Agriculture chief had made an overseas call to him.
Concepcion was in Paris when Piñol phoned him while presiding over the SOCKSARGEN Agricultural Development Program board in Kidapawan City.
Before 6 p.m. Piñol said that, “Tessie Sy of SM, Nonoy Colayco of Rustan’s, Jojo Tagbo of SM SaveMore, Leah Lee of SM Supermarket and ShopWise responded and committed to buy their onion and garlic supply direct from the farmers.”
The news was relayed to him by Concepcion’s focal person for the Go Negosyo Program, Ginggay Hontiveros.
“On my own, I also sent a text message to Riolinda Lim, vice president of NCCC Mall, a chain of about 20 supermarkets in Mindanao who said that brothers Javey and Lafayette Lim, whose family owns NCCC, have pledged to buy onion and garlic direct from the farmers,” Piñol revealed.
Following this development, the DA has to work out a system by which onion farmers, especially those from Bongabon, Nueva Ecija, could deliver their produce to the supermarket chains, he said.
The farmers need a working capital, Piñol said, so they could buy their members’ produce for delivery to these supermarkets.
They also need a revolving capital since the supermarkets’ payment system does not allow direct payment upon delivery, he said.
“I instructed Undersecretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat to make arrangements with Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) head Jocelyn Badiola to prepare a substantial loan package for the country’s onion and garlic farmers,” he added.
Piñol said the DA is ready to provide financing for the onion farmers so they can supply the supermarket and restaurant chains on credit. He instructed DA Undersecretary Evelyn Laviña to work with the onion farmers’ group to determine how much market financing is needed to implement the onion supply agreement with the big supermarket and restaurant chains.
The DA Secretary also instructed Laviña to assist the onion farmers in improving their marketing techniques for their produce, including the proper labeling for local produce to instill consumer loyalty and pride.
Piñol also said the DA will assist local onion farmers become more competitive by helping them adopt new farming technologies and techniques to lower production costs and increase farm yields. He cited an offer of VietGrow, one of Vietnam’s biggest vegetable seeds producer and fertilizer manufacturer, to set up demonstration farms in North Cotabato, Southern Leyte, Nueva Ecija, Isabela, Ilocos Norte and Mindoro.
Laviña said the DA will work with the local onion farmers to draw up a roadmap for the development of the onion industry from farming to post harvest production and marketing to improve their incomes and make them more competitive against imported onion.
“We will make sure that the pagbabago (change) that President Rodrigo Duterte promised our people will become a reality for all our farmers,” Laviña said.
Lastly, Piñol said the DA will provide all the post-harvest facilities that local onion farmers need to reduce wastage in their farm yields, including the construction of cold storage facilities in the onion belt in Central and Northern Luzon and in Mindanao for onion bulbs for planting and produce for longer storage. (DA-OSEC)