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Friday, April 30, 2004
Quedancor hikes fish, rice traders’ income
By Nancy R. Cudis
STC Masscom Intern
FROM the loans they got from Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. (Quedancor), two fathers were able to increase their incomes, send their children through college, build new businesses, and help their community.
Fernando Resuena, the 2003 Top Individual Fisherfolk Awardee of Quedancor, said he borrowed P100,000 in 2001. It helped him further his fish trade business, which he started in 1985. He estimated about a 60 percent increase in his income after he borrowed funds from Quedancor.
He buys his supplies of fish and live prawns from as far as Bohol and sell these in Cebu. He has earned a reputation as a supplier for Waterfront Cebu City Hotel.
With his earnings of about P30,000 per month, he was able to build for his wife a retail business, now flourishing. It is called 4M Enterprises after their four children whose first names start with M. He was also able to send his children to school. His eldest daughter is a hotel and restaurant management graduate.
The positive result of the credit he received from Quedancor encouraged him to renew and double his loan in 2003. It is to be paid at P3,536 on a monthly basis for the next two years.
On the other hand, Celiapo Cabuenas, the 2003 Top Rural Entrepreneur Awardee, took out a loan last year.
For a retailer and wholesaler of rice like him, who buys from the National Food Authority (NFA), the best time to take out a loan is during a crisis period, when costs of commercial rice go up, leaving the rice of the government-owned NFA as the cheapest.
Through this, Cabuenas, a barangay captain, believes he was able to help his constituents buy rice at an affordable cost. The reason is even if prices of rice from other retailers go up, he said he still maintains his low prices.
In 2003, when prices of commercial rice rose, he borrowed P300,000. It is to be paid at P16,000 per month within the next two years.
Capital
According to Cabuenas, for a businessman to earn a profit, he needs capital. Quedancor provided him with that capital.
With better earnings at roughly P1,000 per day in his retail business, he was able to send his second and third children to college. The first one is an accounting and management graduate, the second a psychology graduate, and the third will go on his final year in psychology.
Cabuenas said his store also expanded, and its physical state, improved, through Quedancor’s regular monitoring. He was also able to buy delivery vehicles to transport sacks of rice to customers who ordered them.
These two men live in Talisay, Cebu. For being among the five Gawad Quedancor awardees in the country, they received trophies and P5,000 at Golden Peak Hotel last week in line with the celebration of Agri-Credit Week.
Quedancor is the credit arm of the Department of Agriculture. According to its president and chief executive officer Nelson Buenaflor, the awardees were chosen on the basis of the repayment rate on their loans, their volume of transactions with Quedancor, number of loan availments and the socio-economic impact of their projects.
(April 30, 2004 issue)
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