Tuesday, September 02, 2008 Mindanao fruits, Vegetables expo draws crowds
MISAMIS Oriental's richness in agricultural produce and natural and man-made tourism come-ons will be highlighted once again when the Provincial Government hosts the 1st Mindanao Fruits and Vegetables Expo at the Capitol grounds.
Organized by the Northern Mindanao Vegetable Producers' Association (NorminVeggies), the agri-tourism fair is embedded in the quarterly Salo-Tabo sa Kapitolyo of the Provincial Government and will run through September 5.
Expo Director Leo Eduria of NorminVeggies said the 1st Mindanao Vegetable Expo 2008 will include vegetable culinary arts, techno-demo forum on vegetable production, and product presentations of sponsoring companies.
Participating expositors will also be offering free consultations and assistance for those who are interested to venture into vegetable production.
Along this line, Governor Oscar Moreno lauded NorminVeggies for choosing the Provincial Government to host the event.
"The event will definitely provide us the opportunity of showcasing our agricultural products at a higher level even as we, for the past three years now, have also been holding our version of agro-tourism fair, the Salo-Tabo sa Kapitolyo," Moreno said during Monday's opening of the event.
"A synergy of our efforts for this occassion as well as in future joint undertakings could be expected, that of achieving beyond what we normally expect," he added.
With that, Moreno immediately directed the provincial agriculture and tourism departments and other concerned offices of the province to closely coordinate with NorminVeggies to map out the activities for the five-day Salo-Tabo which, as in the past, has been featuring the One Town One Product (OTOP) of each of the 23 towns and two component cities of Misamis Oriental.
For its part, the provincial agriculture office, which is being referred to as the MisOr Aggies, will also be holding seminars on vegetable, mango, and abaca production and marketing at Sunriva Cafe and Restaurant, which is situated in fron of the provincial Capitol.
Meanwhile, provincial tourism officer Roland Butaslac said among the crowd-drawing activities during the five-day long tourism week celebration are competitions on cheerdance, modern dance, ballroom dancing, duet singing, painting, and the nightly cultural presentations. Another innovative activity is the Tilaw sa Misamis Oriental Team Challenge. (Press release)
