Vegetables, fruits and other commodities sold at lower prices, including President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. (PBBM) rice sold at PHP20 per kilo, are available in 16 Kadiwa trading stores in Antique.

Engr. Israel de Guzman, general manager of the Jubilee Agila Bayanihan Agriculture Cooperative in Antique, in an interview Friday said 16 trading posts or Kadiwa retail stores have been established in seven municipalities of the province.

They can be found in Pandan, Libertad, Sebaste, Hamtic, Tibiao, Sibalom and Belison with two or three stores either at the town proper or in barangays, he said.

“We first established the Kadiwa store in Pandan on March 8 this year. Mayor Tomas Estoperez Jr. was interested in opening the Kadiwa store in his hometown because of the low prices of rice and vegetables being offered by the traders to the farmers,” he said.

He said that to make the enterprise sustainable they have come up with a scheme that an indigent can only buy two kilos of rice from the store daily so that others would also have the chance to purchase the staple food.

“We also encourage those who want to acquire the low-priced rice to first buy PHP100 worth of vegetables to help farmers,” he said.

Apart from selling agri-fishery products at affordable prices, he said farmers can also sell their produce at a higher rate. Farmers can now sell newly harvested palay, for instance, at PHP18 per kilo compared to the PHP15 per kilo offered by traders.

Their ampalaya produce is bought at PHP55 per kilo, thrice higher than the buying price of traders, and sold at PHP60 a kilo.

Kadiwa stores also bought onions at a maximum price of PHP90 per kilo and sold to buyers between PHP100 to PHP120 for every kilo.

Kadiwa is a marketing initiative of DA that aims to provide a direct link between the producer and consumer, reducing intermediaries thus farmers earn higher while fresh quality and quality products are made affordable to the consuming public. (PNA)