DA, MMC eye more Kadiwa stores

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) is in talks with the Metro Manila Council (MMC) to put up more Kadiwa stores to provide residents with basic commodities at lower costs.

DA Assistant Secretary for Consumer Affairs Kristine Evangelista said the support of local government units (LGUs) is vital to putting up more Kadiwa stores.

“We recognize the importance of local governments in expanding the Kadiwa stores; it’s one of the things we’re discussing with the MMC,” Evangelista, speaking in Filipino, told dzBB radio yesterday.

She noted that some LGUs have already expressed interest in putting up Kadiwa stores in their localities.

The DA offers grants of up to P1 million for LGUs to put up Kadiwa stores that will sell commodities sourced from the department’s partner-farmers’ cooperatives.

The grant includes capitalization requirements as well as initial inventory for the Kadiwa store.

“We are encouraging the LGUs to make use of their comm[unity]-based orgs [organizations] to run the Kadiwa store,” Evangelista said. “In effect, it will also become job generating for their community.”

The DA official said it is their vision to establish a Kadiwa center in every city and municipality nationwide. “Hopefully, we can replicate that… While we are still working on that, we will strengthen our pop up and Kadiwa on wheels [stores],” she said.

Since the Marcos administration put up Kadiwa centers in a bid to help Filipinos cope with the rising prices of food and other commodities last year, there are now 924 farmers’ cooperatives supporting the initiative and around 500 stores operating nationwide.