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Monday, July 21, 2003
Bantayan egg makers get rid of middlemen
THE middlemen may completely lose their jobs if they continue to take advantage of the farmers.
As it is, farmers have started going straight to the market themselves to fight the middlemen, especially the opportunistic ones.
According to Bantayan Island Egg Producers Association (Beipa) vice president Gualberto Larida, the middlemen have been controlling the prices of eggs sold by poultry farmers in Bantayan Island.
“They are taking advantage of the farmers because they know that we have no other choice but to sell to them or else our eggs will perish without us earning. So we decided to do something, or else the poultry industry of Bantayan Island will die,” he said during the opening of Beipa’s warehouse at Legaspi Extension, near Pier 1 over the weekend.
Eggs direct from Bantayan Island are now available in Beipa’s warehouse. The prices of the eggs range from P2.65 to P2.95.
Larida said that while the prices of chicken feeds continue to go up, prices of eggs in Bantayan Island stagnate, if not go down.
The manipulative product pricing of middlemen was also raised by vegetable and fruit farmers in Cebu, Bohol and other parts of the Visayas and Mindanao, Southern Partners and Fair Trade Corp. (SPFTC) managing director Geraldin Labradores said earlier.
SPFTC, a trading facility initiated by some people’s organizations and non-government organizations in the region, was established to address the control of merchant middlemen over the prices that result in a reduction in the income of farmers.
“The products being sold in SPFTC’s outlet (located at Mango Square mall) come directly from the producers themselves. We buy directly from the farmers and pay them a higher price for their harvest. We also take care of the transportation from the farm gate, to the processing of the products and opening up of additional options and alternative venues for marketing of the products,” Labradores said.
Like SPFTC, Beipa was also established by the members themselves so that they could get rid of the middlemen.
Beipa’s Larida said 30 of the almost 90 egg producers in Bantayan Island have joined the association initially.
“We hope that this venture of ours will succeed so that the other egg producers who are still at the mercy of middlemen will be encouraged to join us,” he told Sun.Star.
Beipa is spending more than P11,000 per month for the rent of the warehouse, which will be deducted, together with other expenses such as transportation cost and personnel salaries, from the fees of each member.
Members are obliged to give to the organization five centavos for each egg stored in the warehouse.
The average daily production in Bantayan Island is 9,000 eggs, Larida said. JBN
(July 21, 2003 issue)
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