BICOL retailer reported that the agricultural products from Davao region failed to reach its target volume of nine to 12 tons on its first shipment last July 16, 2019.
Liberty Commercial Center (LCC) Fresh Division Merchandise Manager Haydee Guillermo said in a phone interview Thursday, July 18, that only a total of 7.4 tons of fruits such as bananas and mangoes were shipped.
She added that the supposed shipment was Monday, July 15, but the Department of Agriculture (DA)-Davao has to move the schedule due to the inability of some suppliers to bring the fruits on time.
“Also, the expected farm gate price of fruits was not followed during the day of shipment so it is another problem. We were in Davao at the time and we saw that the fruit items were very minimal,” she said in vernacular.
“LCC decided to continue the shipment even if they cannot make the truck full because some fruits, especially bananas, was already starting to ripen. It would mean additional costing if ever,” she added.
The expected arrival of products to Bicol region is after two days of loading.
Meanwhile, Guillermo said despite the failure of the first shipment, LCC still has plans for second and third shipment of agricultural products.
"Honestly, we were not able to compute the profit we will gain on this but the way we see it, it will be a loss on the first shipment," she said.
However, she said the owner of LCC advised them that in business, loss in first shipment is acceptable; second shipment should be breakeven; and in the third shipment, there should be profit already.
"Kasi kapag hindi parin nag-profit [on the third time], we will stop na. Right now, continuous ang aming pag-source dahil ang objective naman namin talaga is direct-to-farm. Our main goal kasi is to help the farmers on where to put their items," Guillermo said.