The Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the SM Foundation and SM Supermalls have launched a weekend market to link farmers directly to customers.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, SM City Urdaneta Central mall manager Abraham Malicdem said the weekend market is a way of giving farmer graduates of Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan (KSK) scholarship program, local farmers, and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) a venue to market their harvests in SM malls nationwide for free while providing customers with fresh produce at reasonable prices.
Though called the “SM Sunday Market,” it is open on Saturdays and Sunday, from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m and aims to help hundreds of local food producers by providing them with high-traffic locations at SM malls nationwide to display and market their products to weekend shoppers, employees and tenants. Market hours can sometimes extend until 7 p.m., he added.
“In SM City Urdaneta Central, we are happy to share that we have various local produce displayed at our SM Sunday Market. These are kalabasa, kangkong, sitaw, sibuyas, papaya, mangoes, pink, lettuce, tomatoes, calamansi, pineapple, cauliflower, potatoes, corn, eggplants, fresh flowers, fruit-bearing plants, seedlings, among others,” he said.
Pangasinan Entrepreneurs Development Association Inc. manager Maricel Trintado, in an interview, said the Sunday Market helps farmers and MSMEs boost their sales by doing away with middlemen.
“They are able to sell up to 80 percent of their products. For instance, one stall earned PHP35,000 gross sales in one day,” she said.
The Sunday Market started in Dagupan City and Rosales town on May 7, while it has already been ongoing in Urdaneta City.
The KSK scholarship program is a collaboration among the DA, DTI, DSWD, SM Foundation, and other national government agencies to enhance the skills and encourage farmer graduates to become entrepreneurs amid economic challenges, changing weather conditions, and limited planting space and resources.
“With DA, DSWD, DTI, and other partner agencies, KSK continues to hone the talents of the graduates as well as strengthen their interest in farming by helping them become entrepreneurs through pop-up booth activities in participating SM Malls,” Malicdem said.
The KSK provides graduates with market exposure in institutionalized selling, while the DA Ilocos Region provides farm inputs, market linkages, and other technical support.
The DSWD, for its part, helps in organizing and mobilization of KSK graduates and social preparations, while the DTI offers entrepreneurial mind-setting, formalizes the business documents of participating farmers, assists in developing farm by-products, and includes KSK farmers in its related activities.
‘BESTival’
Meanwhile, SM Supermalls and the provincial government of Pangasinan recently launched its “Pangasinan BESTival,” which showcased the best food, music and arts in the province from April 24 to May 10.
“SM Supermalls have created per-mall activations that promote each mall’s best in terms of its people, geography, tourism, culture, and tradition,” Malicdem said.
SM City Urdaneta Central has the Giant Paint by Numbers and Art Murals by Guhit Pinas, Pangasinan Local Art Group, while the main event was the eight-feet diameter Giant Pinakbet Pizza cooked by students from Apple International School of Culinary Arts Inc.
Urdaneta City is known as the selling point of vegetables for farmers in eastern and central Pangasinan.
Another featured dish was the giant kakanin or sapin-sapin, an authentic rice delicacy known in the province that symbolizes the rich culture of Pangasinan. (PNA)
