Financial Assistance to Coop

In an effort to stabilize the selling price of fish and other fishery products to the level that is cheap and affordable to the public, the Provincial Government of Bohol (PGBh) through the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) tapped the Bohol Provincial Seaweeds Farmers Producers Cooperative (BPSFPC) and provided the necessary financial assistance as a conduit that would handle the overall management of the marketing enterprise.

Gov. Edgar M. Chatto last Friday after the “Kita Ug Ang Gobernador Program” at the Governor’s Mansion turned over the check worth P482,000 to the board of directors of the cooperative through chairman Francisco Caparas, Jr. as first tranche of the P964,000 worth of financial assistance so that the BPSFPC could start its operation.

The objectives of the project are to establish a Fish Trading Center as a source of cheaper fish and other fishery products that is affordable to the consuming public, to utilize the cold storage facility in times of abundance of fish supply in order to make fish readily available specially during times of scarcity, to help solve the high cost of fish by reducing the layers of channel of distribution but not eliminating the middlemen as they are also part of the fish supply chair, and to increase the income of the cooperative as well as provide employment opportunities among its members.

Assistant Provincial Agriculturist Larry M. Pamugas, head-Agribusiness Division-OPA said that this is a provincial government initiated project of of which the PGBh through the OPA provides the display area located in Dao District, Tagbilaran City.

The cooperative provides the manpower and the capitalization as counterpart.

The cooperative will source out its fish supply directly from the fisher folks of the different municipalities largely in the northern part of Bohol which will be purchased in bulk every other day.

The physical assets like building, cold storage facility and reefer van are owned by PGBh which shall be leased to the cooperative at no cost but repairs and maintenance shall be shouldered by the cooperative.

The Boholanos have been clamoring for a higher price in fish and other marine products which are attributed to low supply in spite of being surrounded with fishing grounds and the practice of so many layers of marketing channels complicate the problem as various middlemen increase the mark up of up to 20% or more.

The cooperative will buy in bulk and retail it cheaper than the existing selling price in the market in order to eventually influence the reduction of the price to a minimum level, thereby becoming affordable to Boholano consumer.

Lamdagan explaind that regular monitoring shall be done by the Agribusiness Division-OPA in coordination with the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) to ensure all parties are following their agreed terms and conditions specifically on the market prices.

She said that the second tranche of same amount would be released once the cooperative could liquidate the first tranche.

The BPSFPC was established on 2009 and a registered coop at the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), has 107 members and based in San Francisco, Talibon, Bohol. (Atoy Cosap)