Kumprahan organizers to drive middlemen out

CEBU, Philippines - Kumprahan SuperMerkado, a community store located in Bridges Town Square, is actively looking for “authentic” farmers and fishermen to be its partners in providing fresh farm produce to the market at reasonable prices.

Jonathan Ramos, chief organizer of Kumprahan, said the company has deployed a community development team composed of six personnel to visit the countryside and encourage farmers, hog backyard raisers and fishermen to group together and become suppliers of Kumparahan.

“We really go to them because we have experienced interested suppliers, saying they are farmers or fishermen, when in fact, they are middle men. We don’t want middle men because the concept of kumprahan is to provide a venue where true farmers can sell their products at prices equal to their production cost,” he told The Freeman.

Farmers, especially those who have to travel all the way from the southern and northern part of Cebu to sell their produce in Carbon market, have been at the mercy of some unscrupulous middle men, who buy the vegetables, fruits, hogs, among others at very low prices.

“There was once a farmer, who wants to sell tomato at P20 per kilo. But she was forced to give it to a middle man, who bought it at P15 per kilo. What hurt her the most was that she was there to witness that the middle man sold the tomatoes to end-consumers at P40 per kilo. This is so oppressive,” Ramos said.

With the Kumprahan, it is ensured that farmers earn what is due them and consumers will get fresh farm products at reasonable prices.

Ramos said that Kumprahan will serve as a “bagsakan center.”

“However, what we offer is beyond trading. We educate them on family values. We give them financial training. We teach them to calculate the cost of their production so that they will be able to price their products reasonably. We discourage them to be opportunistic by raising their prices very high when the demand is high because this will only be a short-term. We tell them that the relationship we want is long-term. Profit is only secondary. The most important thing is that they have an ensured market of their products,” he said.

The Kumprahan community development team has provided the training to farmers in Liloan, Carcar and Cantipla. It has been going around the entire Cebu province.  

The 3, 500-square meter Kumprahan SuperMerkado has opened its grocery section, the CoopCentrum to the public.

Aside from the Coop Centrum, the community store will have a Kumpra Living Bazaar area, Kumpra Food Express with known food cart brands and fastfood outlets, KumpraGrains wholesale, KumpraService that will take care of online buying as well as deliveries, and KumpraFresh for farm products like fruits and vegetables grown by local farmers in Cebu, fish and seafoods, poultry and meat products. 

Ramos said they will be giving out reward cards, called “Kumpra Na Plus Card,” to those who will be shopping at the CoopCentrum from April 8 to April 11, 2010. The cards will be sold at P300 thereafter.

The card offers a maximum of one-percent rebate for every shopping.