Bagsakan and Pork-In-A-Box : Gunning for Market Access Initiatives
Reduced prices and other forms of promotion comprise the usual mean used nowadays by producers and manufacturers to sell mass-produced products. Industrial suppliers also try to increase market share by providing as wide a variety of products and services, much of their differentiation being packaging and convenience.
To address farmers’ and fisherfolk’s agricultural problems in terms of rising transportation costs, time, shrinkage, logistics and the changing consumer attitudes, the Department of Agriculture (DA) continues to develop new ideas that satisfy their objective of bringing more income for farmers and fisherfolk. Some of these market access programs and initiatives include the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFAM).
DA Assistant Secretary Salvador Salacup said, “AFAM stipulates that DA’s programs should support and aid farmers and fisherfolk sell their products not only at a farm level, but preferably at the wholesale or retail level.”
The DA’s Bagsakan program’s objectives include giving fisherfolk and farmers the access to sell directly to end-users wherein margins of profits are better compared to the traditional practice of depending on the viajeros, consolidators or baranggay agents who decide and look for the markets that farm products belong to.
Salacup continued, “It is a fact that agriculture and fishery product marketing entails going through five to six trading layers-middlemen, consolidators and baranggay agentswherein margins are also made. If we cut down on this, the selling price at retail level at the end of the spectrum, where end-users are, will be more affordable.”
In its Bagsakan program, the DA identifies and pays for market stalls from 17 different wet markets that the department has accredited. “If the farmer would like to sell their Pangasius or white Pacific shrimp, we give them four months worth of free market stall rental, wherein they could have the opportunity to know the tricks of the trade.”
Salacup believes that a farmer’s competence is measured by his expertise in production, and the period of four months will give them an insight on how to run their business all by themselves, without the help of any middleman.
The bagsakan centers are open to everyone and don’t require any access cards or other requirements to purchase goods. Thirty bagsakan centers (formerly known as barangay food terminals) in Metro Manila are directly serving 412,968 families, and 34 centers in other regions are catering to 55,445 families, according to the agriculture department.
There are currently 25 bagsakan centers for farm-produce nationwide, where farmers can directly sell their goods so they can reduce trading costs. Depicted from the “Huwarang Palengke” concept, the bagsakan centers have been put up to guarantee the satisfactory supply and stable prices of goods, by slashing the number of trade layers that pad the cost of transporting products from the farmgate to their final distribution points.
Another one of the DA’s projects, Pork in a Box, also follows that basic principle, also addressing the problem in food security. “The vision of Pork in a Box is that cutting up of carcasses should be done in the provincial and regional areas. This is to ensure that waste products are not transported in Mega Manila and that producers save up on logistical expenses,” continued Salacup.
Coupled with the initial objective of direct market linkage and market access, Pork in a Box addresses agriculture’s problems in food security and waste management.
Salacup cited reports that there has been big success in General Santos City and a lot of pork produced in that part of the country are now shipped to Mega Manila, not in live, but in specially-cut form. Eventually, according to him, 8090% of the country’s pork products in that part of the country will be in cut form already.
Dr. Minda S. Manahan of the National Meat Inspection Services (NMIS) expounded during the 4th Annual Cold Chain Association of the Philippines (CCAP) conference that the scheme is an industry-government activity that is also being looped to the cold chain.
Under the recent innovation, the inventory is done on meat rather than livestock. Producers are assured of price because when live animals are transported from Mindanao to the markets in Manila, the animals tend to lose weight along the way, thus reducing the calculated weight at farm gate.
In the Philippines, the current suppliers of Pork-In-a-Box are Pecuria Marketing, Mayon Consolidated, AgriFreeze, Nenita Quality Foods, Gensan Food Empire, Sama-Rap Foods, and Nueva Food.
As far as export initiatives are concerned, the industry-government undertaking is centered on exportable meat and meat products which must be HACCP certified and must come from “AAA” accredited meat establishment. The NMIS will also ensure the export quality of all meat and meat products be seeing to it that there is no gap in chain from the production, packaging and storage of export products.
Accordingly, the government also has applied import regulations such as Administrative Order 26 series of 2005 detailing rules, regulations and standards governing the importation of meat and meat products into the Philippines. The AO also orders the Veterinary Quarantine Office to issue and sign the veterinary quarantine and meat inspection and laboratory certificate (VQMILC) and stamp “Inspected and Passed” for Transfer to NMIS Accredited Cold Storage” on the authentic copy of the Bureau of Customs import documents/entries.
Salacup said that in a span of five years, the accredited meat establishments persist to increase. In 2000, there were only 297, then move 309 in 2001, 335 in 2002, 344 in 2003, 374 in 2004 and 379 in 2005.
For the accredited cold storage numbering about a dozen in 2001 it has jumped after five years to 55 in 2006. This was reflected in the NMIS record as of May 31, 2006 which also indicated that were only i8 accredited cold storage in 2002, 19 in 2003, 31 in 2004, and 46 in 2005.
However same report showed that Accredited “AAA” Cold Storage were only found in Region N-A with five, Region VII - 2, and NCR, 1. The Accredited “AA” Cold Storage also as of May 31, 2006 were found in NCR with 22; Region I with eight and one each in Regions II, III, IV-A, V, VI, VII, VIII, XI, XII, and Caraga while Region X has four.
“The department, through trade fairs and such, are working on and implementing programs that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo herself and DA Secretary Arthur Yap initially mentioned in the recently-concluded Food Summit,” added Salacup.
PGMA highlighted her new thrust for agriculture embodied in the acronym FIELDS: F for Fertilizer (emphasis on the use of organic fertilizers); I for Infrastructure (irrigation, farm to market roads); E for Extension (teach and inform farmers for greater yields); L for Loans (credit access for stakeholders); D for Dryers (particularly for rice and corn) and S for Seeds (encourage farmers to use newly developed and certified seeds for better quality harvest).
