(RIBBON CUTTING. Department of Agriculture (DA) Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service Assistant Secretary Andrew Villacorta (2nd L), Department of Trade and Industry 3 Regional Director Judith Angeles (C), and DA 3 Regional Director Crispulo Bautista Jr. (2nd R) cut the ribbon for the 3rdAgribusiness Support for Promotions and Investment in Regional Expositions held at Robinsons Starmills, Pampanga. – PIA 3)
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — A total of 55 agri-entrepreneurs, processors and producers from Central Luzon joined in the 3rdAgribusiness Support for Promotions and Investment in Regional Expositions (ASPIRE) held at the Robinsons Starmills.
Department of Agriculture (DA) Regional Executive Director Crispulo Bautista Jr. said ASPIRE is a marketing strategy that aims to link farmers with producers, end users and institutional buyers and promote the region’s prime commodities.
“Our farmers will gain more and earn more profit through this marketing strategy. At the same time, end users will also gain from this initiative because they can get the products at lower prices, unlike if these will go through a middleman,” Bautista said.
For this event, DA invited cooperatives who already have products to market, as well as producers who need buyers, to be among the exhibitors.
“Here, we showcase crops that have potential for export like onions. In fact, our Secretary has agreement with the government of Indonesia to import our onions. Another one is camote. Three months ago, Koreans met with Sapang Multi Purpose Cooperative in Tarlac to look into a marketing agreement for the supply of camote chips,” he said.
Bautista added that since Central Luzon is already known as a top producer of rice, what they are promoting now is value adding among farmers.
“Now, we have a good harvest of rice. Unfortunately, the price of palay went down. So we encourage our farmers to sell rice instead of selling palay to earn more,” the director said.
ASPIRE program is done in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other private sectors industry groups.
It has four components namely production support, enterprise development and industry support, investment promotion and market promotion and development. – PIA 3
