Benguet trading center earns P16B in 4-years; Gov. Diclas ok BAPTC’s into corporation

July 18, 2021 Provincial

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Governor Melchor Diclas favored the move to transform the multi-million Benguet Agri Pinoy Trading Center (BAPTC) into a corporation ,provided it had undergone a thorough study. Gov. Diclas likewise stressed that Benguet should be one of the incorporators in order to safeguard the interest of the province and the region.
Earlier reports, Agriculture Secretrary William Dar, said BAPTC’s transformation aims to optimize the potentials and profitability, more cost-efficient services and modern facilities to farmers and stakeholders; improve marketability of highland vegetables; provide farmers, buyers, traders reasonable profit for the produce.
In line with the direction in transforming the trading center into a corporation, several farmer groups as well as individual farmers, traders and packers have expressed support for the plan of installing a solar power to hasten the capability of the facility.
Meanwhile, as of June this year, the trading center has accredited 9,419 individual farmers, market facilitators,inter-traders,buyers porters and packers.
And the first semester, monthly average volume traded was posted at 15K metric tons (MT). Years,trading has significantly increased: 70,826 metric tons (MT) in 2017; 106,874 MT 2018; 124,855 MT in 2019; and 170,355 MT in 2020 for a total of 472,911.20 MT.
Span of years (2017-2020) , the region’s premier trading center has generated Php16.653 billion worth traded commodities.
Other development, farmers,traders and several stakeholders are asking for the installation of a solar power as a cost-efficient source of alternative power.
The group also hope a cold storage be put up as a mitigation means and preserve produce.
Primo Agatep/ABN