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Monday, September 26, 2005
Cebu to get cheaper goods with Cotabato imports
THE availability of a roll-on roll-off (roro) port in Cagayan de Oro will help bring down the cost of bringing agricultural produce from Cotabato to Cebu.
This is why Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol is asking the government to include the Cagayan de Oro port in the government’s roro nautical program.
“We (Cotabato) could sell many agricultural products to Cebu at cheaper prices if only the government will make an intervention,” he told a press conference during the opening of the three-day Cotabato Fair and Fruit Festival at the SM City Cebu Trade Hall last Friday.
Landlocked
Because Cotabato is landlocked, farmers have to bring their products bound for Cebu to the Cagayan de Oro port.
Currently, the average total freight cost of bringing products from Cotabato via Cagayan de Oro to Cebu would reach P70,000.
This is why part of the marketing strategy of Cotabato, through the Fair and Fruit Festival, is to partner with traders and entrepreneurs, such as food processors from developed provinces like Cebu, so that Cotabato farmers would not have to shoulder the entire freight cost.
The Department of Agriculture (DA), which is promoting the use of roro ports for the transport of major agricultural commodities from far regions to Manila and other provinces, said it expects the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) to include more ports in the nautical highway program.
“Currently, more than 100 roro ports operate in the Philippines and through National Economic and Development Authority’s order and DOTC’s efforts, the government could add more ports to the system. The target is to have 370 additional ports as part of this program,” Agriculture Undersecretary Salvador Salacup said.
Bounty
Cotabato is known to be the food basket of Mindanao. But it was once identified as among the five poorest provinces in the country in 1998.
Having trade partners in Cebu would allow Cotabato products to enter the Cebu market, Piñol said.
If this would happen, he added that Cebu could enjoy the agricultural bounty of Cotabato and,s at the same time, help peace to dwell in Mindanao, as a stable income would avert the people’s attention from rebellion.
Some 90 percent of the people in Cotabato are farmers.
“If we are to effectively address the nagging problem of poverty and its after-effects, we have to develop our agriculture sector. This is where our hope rests,” Piñol said.
He said the province’s long-term plan is to have all lands in Cotabato planted with agricultural products, especially with cardava banana, hybrid coconut, oil palm and rubber, by 2014.
In its agricultural development program that focuses on market-oriented agriculture, the Cotabato Provincial Government has identified the four crops—cardava banana, hybrid coconut, oil palm and rubber—as the products to be given massive support.
Cotabato is also a major producer of cereals, tropical fruits, vegetables, sugarcane, coconut, coffee, freshwater fish and livestock. It is also one of the country’s leading producers of industrial trees and raw and semi-processed rubber, with markets in Asia and Europe.
According to a statement, the DA has given Cotabato a P5-million seed fund for the province’s rubber development program. (JBN)
(September 26, 2005 issue)
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