TABUK CITY, Kalinga -- The Kalinga Coffee Trading Center (KCTC) will soon rise in this city following its groundbreaking ceremony last July.
The state-of-the art P2.4 million-worth facility funded under the Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) is expected to be completed December this year.
The KCTC will serve as the main consolidation center for coffee producing areas in Tabuk City, Tanudan, and Pinukpuk including the upper municipalities of Kalinga. It will incorporate receiving, sorting and storage areas for the trading center’s consolidation services as well as the equipment to be used such as mechanical dryer, conveyor, among others.
The facility is designed to accommodate 10,000 kilograms of coffee green beans at any given time. With an all-in-all-out scheme, the trading facility will accommodate the targeted volume of 75,000 kilograms of coffee green beans per month.
“With the construction of this facility, I challenge the members of the Kalinga Coffee Cluster (KCC) to be strengthened and united for as long as the KCC exists, the operation for the trading center will carry on,” said Provincial Project Management and Implementing Unit head Engr. Domingo Bakilan. “Existing coffee plantations should be revived as well, and expanded to increase coffee production.”
The KCTC will be managed by the Mulligan Farmers Multipurpose Cooperative (Dufampco) being the lead proponent of the Kalong Integrated Coffee Processing and Marketing Enterprise, a subproject under the PRDP I-REAP (Enterprise Development) component.
Alfonso Manado, chairman of Tanudan Savings and Lending Cooperative, one of the affiliate proponent groups of the Coffee Enterprise expressed his gratitude for the long awaited construction of the facility. Along with the other proponent groups of the enterprise, he anticipates the immediate delivery of the other coffee processing equipment in time for the next harvest season.
The Integrated Coffee Processing and Marketing Enterprise was conceptualized in response to the need for alternative buyers and expanded market that will give higher income to coffee-grower members and KCC affiliates. (PR)