Agri office sets up packing houses for banana farmers

THE Department of Agriculture (DA)-Davao regional office is assisting small banana farmers meet international standards through the establishment of new packing houses.

DA-Davao, under its project "Establishment of Standard Clustered Packing Houses," has granted P50 million to fund 12 new packing houses to identified small banana farmers in the region.

The first to be granted of the new packing house is the Casig-ang San Miguel Multipurpose Cooperative (CASMI-MPC) in Barangay Casig-ang, Sto. Tomas, Davao del Norte. CASMI-MPC is a member of the Federations of Cooperatives in Mindanao (Fedco). It has 39 members.

CASMI-MPC, together with some representatives from DA-Davao, held a groundbreaking of its new packing house on December 20, 2012.

Construction of the facility that started on December 22, 2012 will run for about 90 days.

The groundbreaking marked the start of DA's project with the groundbreaking of the new packing house, Fedco chief executive officer, Rene Dalayon said.

He said the project is aimed at helping small banana farmers meet international standards in relation to packing of exportable bananas.

Aside from Casmi, the DA also granted a new packing house for Manuel Guianga Banana Cluster Cooperative (MGBCC) located at Brgy. Manuel Guianga, Davao City. Groundbreaking of the facility was held last December 27.

Present during the CASMI-MPC groundbreaking were DA-Davao Regional Director Constancio C. Maghanoy Jr. and other DA-Davao officials.