By Vicente Labro
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:20:00 05/24/2008
KAWAYAN, Biliran—The sea may be rich in marine resources and the fields may be fertile, but farmers and fisher folk in a coastal village of this town believe they still need to earn extra income to ensure a better future for their children.
Thus, in early 2005, more than 40 residents of Barangay Balite who shared a common faith, determination and dream decided to form themselves into a cooperative called Balite Marketing Cooperative (BMC).
The BMC started as a marketing cooperative with 46 members and a capitalization of P23,000, says BMC adviser Conrado Victorioso.
Victorioso was the first BMC chairman but he relinquished his seat after he won a seat in the municipal council in 2006.
What the cooperative initially did was to buy the members’ catch and sell them in bulk in the capital town of Naval, about 20 km from Barangay Balite, or at the Kawayan town proper. In this way, they sever their ties with the trader and keep the income for themselves.
Then the cooperative decided to put up a store in the barangay where the members can buy grocery items, farm inputs and hardware, among others.
The BMC store flourished in just two years and is now patronized by other Balite residents and buyers from nearby places.
BMC treasurer Romeo Victorioso says that three years after the cooperative was put up, it now has 56 members with assets worth P1.2 million because of the many businesses it invested in.
The cooperative, for instance, extended the store to accommodate fresh marine and farm products. To save on labor costs, coop members themselves worked on the foundation and construction of the extension. The work was started shortly after they learned that BMC’s application to run a Barangay Bagsakan had been approved.
A Barangay Bagsakan, a project of the Department of Agriculture, is a village-based food depot and distribution system offering low-priced agri-fishery products to consumers. The project aims to address poverty and hunger by linking suppliers to the depot.
Rowena Suyom-Genete and Rene Remanes of DA’s agribusiness marketing section and Barangay Bagsakan coordinators for Eastern Visayas, reveal that the BMC received a P50,000 loan payable in a year at no interest to pursue the depot.
As bagsakan operator, the BMC store was also provided with free equipment including a free chest freezer, vegetable chiller and digital weighing scale.
Genete says the Barangay Bagsakan in Barangay Balite was among the first to be established in Eastern Visayas and it has encouraged the locals to increase their production of marine and agricultural products.
The Barangay Bagsakan offers various products at prices lower than prevailing market price, P3 to P10 less for meat products and P1 less for vegetables and fruits.
Marissa Villareal, a 30-year-old housewife and member of the BMC, says she is happy that their cooperative now operates a Barangay Bagsakan for she now has access to reasonably price food items.
“If we will go to Naval (to buy food), we’ll have to spend for transportation,” she says.
Transportation to Naval costs about P15 for a one-way trip. She adds that she could have a big savings from the transportation money saved and the availability of low-priced food.
Add to this the income her farmer-husband earns from selling his produce to the BMC and their increasing share in the cooperative, Villareal said they would have enough savings for her two young children’s schooling and other family needs.
The co-op is not about to stop with just the depot, Valeriano says that the BMC has already sought the help of DA on training for food processing to add to the group’s income.
Their efforts prove that there truly is strength in numbers.
