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| Last week's two-day Agraryo Trade Fair at the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) compound generated more than 100,000 pesos in sales. Photo: DAR |
TACLOBAN CITY — During the two-day Agraryo Trade Fair held last week at the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) compound, farmers' products from various parts of Eastern Visayas generated more than a hundred thousand pesos in sales.
Melecia Ong, Chief of the Program Beneficiaries Development (PBD) Division, revealed that the trade fair, themed "Produktong Benepisyaryo tungo sa Malawak na Merkado," generated a total of 116,332 in sales for products of agrarian reform beneficiaries organizations (ARBOs) alone.
She emphasized that sales generated by private entrepreneurs who attended the trade show were not included. According to the organizer, the private entrepreneurs made more than P40,000 in total sales.
According to Ong, the majority of ARBOs products, ranging from fresh fruits and vegetables to processed foods, were sold out.
Ong proudly shared that 13 ARBOs in Region-8 had already been granted a license to operate by the Food and Drug Administration, also known as FDA-LTO and that one product had been issued with a Certificate of Product Registration (CPR), allowing them to enter a larger market.
The Agraryo Trade Fair was one of the highlights of the month-long celebration of the 34th year of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), which covered all agricultural lands under the agrarian reform program regardless of tenurial arrangements, and the 50th year of the Presidential Decree 27, which emancipated tenants from soil bondage.
"We are showcasing here the results of all the interventions we provided to the agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) under CARP's provision of support services component," Regional Director Robert Anthony Yu said during the trade fair's opening.
"They are no longer farmers by themselves," said Provincial Director Ruthelma Samonte of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), "but we call them CARPreneurs (for CARP entrepreneurs), which means they are already in business."
During the event, Samonte advised DAR, "We must prepare them for the larger market."
"The ARBOs must be prepared in terms of production," she emphasized. "With institutional buyers, they must have supplied ready," Samonte added.
DTI is one of DAR's partner agencies in providing the necessary assistance to ARBs in order to transform them into farmer entrepreneurs.
Meanwhile, representatives from the Departments of Agriculture (DA) and Science and Technology (DOST), Francisco Ocado and Lysander King III, respectively, pledged their agencies' continued support in assisting ARBOs in developing potential products to supplement their farming activities. —iTacloban (Source: DAR)