Farmers and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are urged to get on board with Deliver-E, an integrated end-to-end e-commerce platform for agricultural and food products.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) officially launched Monday the platform in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), farmer cooperatives, and private sector partners.

“The main goal of this project is to increase our country’s food production and ensure supply stability for basic necessities and prime commodities through new business models,” DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said.

Lopez said Deliver-E will help MSMEs, farmers, and farmers’ cooperatives sell their products directly to consumers.

This also aims to increase the income of farmers by cutting intermediaries or “middlemen” that will also lower the prices of agricultural goods in the market.

For instance, the PHP9 farmgate price of one kilogram of carrots becomes PHP40 per kilo in markets in Metro Manila due to additional fees incurred from having middlemen.

The Deliver-E also aims to develop efficient transport and logistics systems for agricultural products, provide MSMEs supply affordable and quality agricultural products, and create a dashboard that will enable the government to gather and analyze real-time data to aid policy making.

The Deliver-E, developed by InsightSCS, was initially designed to help farmers from the Cordillera Administrative Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, and Bicol in times when movements of goods were hampered by restrictions due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Meanwhile, USAID Philippines acting mission director Patrick Wesner announced during the virtual launching that USAID has allocated close to PHP20 million worth of grants to further improve the capacity and efficiency of the Deliver-E.

“Since its pilot in April 2020, farmers from Luzon and a number of provinces in Mindanao sold around 500 tons of fresh fruits and vegetables worth 7.2 million to 35,000 buyers in Metro Manila and nearby provinces,” Wesner said.

There are currently two farmer cooperatives, 600 farmers, and seven MSMEs that went on board of the e-commerce platform.

By 2021, Deliver-E aims to involve at least 25 farmer cooperatives, 12,500 farmer beneficiaries, and 100 MSMEs. (PNA)