The Department of Agriculture in partnership with the Nueva Vizcaya Agricultural Terminal in Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya help vegetable and tomato farmers in selling their products to various outlets. ( Photos Courtesy of DA Region 2 )
BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya (PIA) — The Department of Agriculture and the Nueva Vizcaya Agricultural Terminal are helping vegetable and tomato farmers here in selling their products to various market outlets.
NVAT officials said through the use of the trading capital given by the DA in Cagayan Valley, they were able to sell a total of 221, 476 kgs of assorted vegetables amounting to ₱6.78 million from September to November 2023 while sold 68,526 kgs of tomatoes amounted to ₱2.56 million.
“This partnership benefited 269 tomato growers and 318 assorted vegetable producers in the province, said Gilbert Cumila, NVAT General Manager.
He said NVAT managed to capture four institutional buyers based in Manila, absorbing their agricultural products through the DA’s KADIWA trucks on a twice a week deliveries.
“To date, it has delivered 157,452.47 kgs of assorted vegetables to include 7.6 mt of tomatoes worth ₱10.62 million to these institutional buyers at 5-6 tons capacity per delivery,” Cumila said.
He assured the NVAT will continue to perform its role in ensuring that the vegetables being delivered to them by farmers are traded in other provinces and regions and as far as in Bicol.
Cumila said at present, NVAT buys good quality (big size) tomatoes at ₱10.0 – 15.0 per kg on average from the farmers and cater them to their institutional buyers.
He said they also bought 3,243 kgs of tomatoes from the farmers in the province recently and donated them to the municipalities of Dupax del Sur, Bayombong, and Bagabag as part of NVAT’s Corporate Social Responsibility.
Tomato products at the Nueva Vizcaya Agricultural Terminal in Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya are being sorted out by farmers in preparation for selling to various market outlets. The DA helps the NVAT through market linkaging of their products. ( Photo Courtesy of DA Region 2 )
DA officials headed by Cagayan Valley OIC- Regional Executive Director Rose Mary Aquino met with local government unit officials, agriculture workers and tomato growers of Nueva Vizcaya on the recent dumping of 8,000 kilograms of tomatoes in Bambang town and market linkaging to help farmers in selling their products.
DA’s evaluation of the dumped tomato products showed that these are red, small in sizes and are no longer acceptable in the market.
Through market linkaging, DA was able to bring the Happy Farmers Agriculture Cooperative of Dupax del Norte town in Nueva Vizcaya, a recipient of the KADIWA Financial Grant Assistance to the chain of active suppliers of different agri-products to various institutional and local buyers in Metro Manila and other regions, hoping to further expand their market reach to help farmers.
DA report said Happy Famers Agriculture Cooperative successfully delivered a total of 3,350 kg of assorted vegetables to two institutional buyers in Bulacan while a total of 7,420 kg of the cooperative’s tomato products were sold out in Bulacan, and Metro Manila early this month. (BME/PIA NVizcaya)
