BAPTC vows to repair, operationalize cold storage rooms

February 9, 2019 Provincial

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Farmers and traders conducting business in the Benguet Agri–Pinoy Trading Center (BAPTC) have something to look forward this year with the forthcoming repair and the
operationalization of some 12 cold storage rooms in the said facility.
BAPTC chief of operations Dr. Violeta Salda on Monday (Feb. 4) said her office is just awaiting the approval of the Project Steering Board (PSB) of the facility on the P1 million allocated for the repair.
Salda said the amount forthe repair of the cold storage rooms will be drawn from BAPTC funds.
When repaired, the BAPTC official said, each storage room can accommodate 12-40 metric tons (MT) depending on the
commodity.
The BAPTC operations chief further said, another option is to allow local traders to fund the repairs and the expenses can be deducted
from their monthly rental of the facility.
In fact, Salda said, several traders have already signified their intention to shoulder the cost of repairs.
Issues such as government accounting rules and regulations and the
“juridical personality” of BAPTC to lobby regular funds took a big toll in the repairs, the BAPTC official explained.
Last year, Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Manny Piñol, who chairs the PSB, approved the repair of the non-operational storage rooms at the BAPTC.
Secretary Piñol emphasized the vital importance of having a cold storage facility of vegetable crops to maintain their quality and prevent post-harvest losses.
Meanwhile, based on the BAPTC 2018 Annual Accomplishment Report, the facility has generated a total of P21,584,491 in revenues. Trading and spot trading space rental fees topped the revenue
collection.
A total volume of 106,660,668 kilograms (kgs) of vegetables were traded, marked by its 1,152,000 kgs volume traded per day. The morning trading has the highest recorded volume of 71,238,260
kgs. However, BAPTC face the challenge of continuous trading until the afternoon in order to utilize the full operation of the facility.
Farmer-borrowers of the Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) from 13 lending conduits in (Benguet) delivered a total of 1,317,470 kgs of highland vegetables.
BAPTC is one of the 22 Agri-Pinoy Trading Centers established across the country, designed to enable the basic producers to skip the necessity of going through marketing layers.