Ilocos Sur farmers to supply Jollibee, Splash Foods with garlic

(Updated 6:59 p.m.) The Bureau of Agricultural Research of the Department of Agriculture announced Thursday that an Ilocos Sur farmers cooperative will supply Jollibee Foods Corporation and Splash Foods Corporation with garlic and garlic products starting June. “Jollibee is conducting a leadership and entrepreneurial skills session for us. It just opened an opportunity for us to sell them eight tons of garlic a month,” said Reginald I. Yadao, Sinait Garlic Center of the North Producers Cooperative project coordinator, in the statement issued by the bureau. For Splash Foods, the Bureau said that the cooperative will deliver four metric tons (MT) of peeled garlic and 1.5 MT of powdered garlic per month. Jollibee, however, said that talks are ongoing and that the deal is not yet final. BAR grant The Sinait cooperative has received a P3-million commercial technology program from the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) to revive garlic production in Ilocos. The training and technology from the program will enable garlic growers to create value-added products like flakes, chips and powder. Members of various farmer groups, like MCM Garlic Growers Assn., Pasuquin Farmers Garlic and Onion Growers Assn., Vintar Garlic Growers Assn., and San Nicolas Bawang Assn., earn a net income of P171,540 per hectare. Traditional garlic farms only earn P100,000 per hectare. Sinait Garlic Center is urging the government to fund more research and development projects on garlic cultivation. “Seeds have always been our problem. We just keep on using the same seeds season after season. Garlic is the only crop that has no hybrid. Even onion has hybrid seeds,” said Yadao. In a separate agreement, Sinait Garlic Center will supply crop consolidator Nueva Segovia Consortium of Cooperative involving seven MT of garlic. To serve the requirement of traders like Nueva Segovia, Yadao said Sinait Garlic Center needs help from the Department of Agriculture to buy a refrigerated van. This would help retain the freshness and quality of garlic when it is transported from Ilocos to Metro Manila. Sinait farmers need new technologies in garlic production to keep their output on track. The Philippines continues to import garlic to meet the demand. Imports peaked at 55,000 MT in 2008 but has fallen to 18,000 MT in 2010, and to 8,000 MT in 2011. — VS/BM, GMA News