SM starts buying local farm produce

The SM group has started making good on its commitment to help boost the local onion industry with an initial 20 tons bought directly from farmers.

In a statement, SM Markets said the initial order was to be available by Friday on the shelves of select SM Supermarket, Savemore Market, and SM Hypermarket branches.

With the help of the Department of Agriculture, SM Markets entered into a supply deal with the Local Onion Growers for National Economy and Trade Cooperative or Lognet, which is based in Nueva Ecija.

“SM Markets will augment onion sales through communication efforts in enjoining its shoppers to help support the DA’s initiative,” the company said.

Last week, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said he met with representatives of big supermarket and restaurant chains like SM, Robinsons, Shakey’s, Jolibee, Shopwise, Savemore and Mindanao-based NCCC malls to finalize an agreement on buying direct from local onion farmers.

The meeting, arranged with the help of Presidential Adviser for Economic Enterprise Joey Concepcion, was intended “to address the immediate need of local onion farmers to sell their produce.”

The agriculture chief said the DA was also monitoring the operation of unscrupulous traders “who dump excess onion imports into the local market during harvest time to drive the onion farming sector to bankruptcy so they could just make money from imports.”

Also, Piñol said the DA was ready to provide financing for the onion farmers so they could supply the supermarket and restaurant chains on credit.

He said the DA would help local onion farmers become more competitive by helping them adopt new farming technologies and techniques to lower production costs and increase farm yields.

He cited an offer of VietGrow, one of Vietnam’s biggest vegetable seeds producers and fertilizer manufacturers, to set up demonstration farms in North Cotabato, Southern Leyte, Nueva Ecija, Isabela, Ilocos Norte and Mindoro.

Further, Piñol said the DA would provide all the post-harvest facilities that local onion farmers need to reduce wastage in their farm yields, including the construction of cold storage facilities in the onion belt in Central and Northern Luzon and in Mindanao.