NAPC to build P3M farmers’ trading post in Cebu City

Secretary Noel Felongco of the National Anti-Poverty Commission signs a memorandum of agreement with Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella for the construction of an Agriculture Trading Post and Enterprise Development for farmers in Cebu City. | Delta Dyrecka Letigio

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) will be investing P3 million to build an Agriculture Trading Post and Enterprise Development for farmers in Cebu City.

The NAPC and the Cebu City government signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on Thursday afternoon, October 3, 2019, to establish the trading post at the North Reclamation Area with at least 150,000 square meters space.

The trading post will cater to the produce of the farmers of the 28 mountain barangays in Cebu City. These include lettuce, carrots, potatoes, eggplants, mangoes and other fruits.

The farmers can either be part of the cooperative or they can choose to enroll themselves into the trading post on their own.

They will also undergo various agricultural, business, and even marketing trainings.

“They will undergo trainings on how to present their products, how to wrap their products, how to do bookkeeping or how to make byproducts,” said Secretary Noel Felongco of NAPC.

Felongco has envisioned the trading post to be both a market and a training center.

He said they were considering partnering with private establishments that might be interested in sourcing their raw materials from the trading post.

At least P1 million of the given budget will go to the construction of the trading post, another P1 million will go to the hauling support and provision for vehicle transport, and the last P1 million will go to the capital infusion relative to the conduct of livelihood projects in the area.

The P3 million budget is sourced from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor).

Felongco assured that the trading post would be a sustainable project as it would be expected to help the farmer grow better in both agriculture and business.

Mayor Edgardo Labella said he was grateful to the NAPC for investing in the farmers of Cebu City, who found it difficult to bring their products into the city center because of the distance and lack of viable transport.

Labella said the trading post would allow more Cebuanos to appreciate Cebu City’s products or produce as the North Reclamation Area is accessible to cities and towns from the northern part of Cebu.

He said that this new market would not compete with the Carbon Public Market because the farmers would be directly bringing their products to the trading posts, unlike in Carbon market where third party distributors were involved.

“The products will definitely be cheaper and it will all be Cebu City-grown,” said the mayor.

The construction of Agriculture Trading Post and Enterprise Development is expected to start in November 2019 and will be completed a year after./dbs