((L-R) East West Seed marketing and strategy consultant Ricardo Reyes, business development manager Jacob Bass, general manager Henk Hermans, Philippine Horticultural Society directors Tiffany Chan and Nelson Cabangon cut the ribbon during the opening of Farm Ready concept store at SM City Clark. Photo by Ashley Manabat)
CLARK FREEPORT – High-quality vegetable seedlings that are ready-to-plant, ready-to-grow and ready-toharvest as well as ornamental plants are now available at the SM City Clark here.
The Farm-Ready concept store was formally opened over the weekend at the Garden Park (east wing) of SM that also offers “Go Grow” vegetable seeds, ornamentals like the “FloweReady” seedlings, and soil media.
Jacob Baas, business development manager of East West Seed Philippines (EWSP), said the store was develop by EWSP and Farm-Ready to try to increase vegetables consumption by making vegetable plants more accessible.
“Because vegetables have a lot of health benefits… we will be more energetic if we consume vegetables,” he said during the store’s opening.
Henk Hermans, EWSP general manager, said “our seeds are adopted and bred for the climate here in the Philippines and best adopted for the diseases and that means we have the seeds that really grow the best here.”
“We aim to inspire more people to engage in growing vegetables and to live healthier by consuming more vegetables. We do this by providing them with easy access to products that can help them become more farm-ready,” he added.
Melanie Cruz of East West Seed Foundation said some of those that are offered are “three crops in one sack.” She explained that the sack may contain the leafy bokchoy or the Chinese petchay, basil and the main crop could be eggplant while in the middle of the sack is the irrigation tube which contains pebbles.
Nelson Cabangon, director of the Philippine Horticultural Society said, “what we want is this kind of activity be brought to the people.”
The Farm-Ready Concept Store highlights products from East-West Seed’s sister company, the Farm-Ready GG Seedling Corp., the first professional vegetable seedling nursery in the Philippines.
Fr. Jun Mercado officiated the blessing of the concept store.
