Farmers in Oriental Mindoro are set to earn more and consumers to pay less for food following the opening of new trading and processing hubs and the province-wide rollout of P20 rice.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Monday launched the Oriental Mindoro Trading and Consolidation Facility (OMTCF), a P33.5-million hub meant to cut post-harvest losses and help farmers sell at better prices by speeding up delivery to markets.

“This is how you raise farmer incomes—not by telling them to plant more, but by making sure what they harvest actually reaches the market at the right price,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr. said. 

“When farmers earn more, rural economies move faster, food becomes more affordable, and food security becomes real.”

The 966.75-square-meter facility houses 18 trading stalls, storage areas, washing, sorting, weighing, and packing zones, and loading bays. 

It offers hauling, processing, and market linkage services, including access to institutional buyers and online platforms.

Also launched was a Provincial Demo Farm that allows farmers to earn more from their crops through processing and year-round production. 

Facilities include agriprocessing centers with modern dehydrators, vacuum fryers, and baking systems; the FoodtrIP mobile processing truck that converts surplus harvests into shelf-stable products; and a solar-powered greenhouse with hydroponics.

The DA also opened the Provincial Agriculture Center, which will provide agri-incubation, toll processing, aggregation, and market linkage services, working with the OMTCF to match supply with demand.

At the consumer level, the DA expanded the P20 Rice Project across Oriental Mindoro through KADIWA ng Pangulo, targeting about 70,000 households.

“This is the perfect opportunity to expand the P20 Rice Project in Oriental Mindoro,” Assistant Secretary Genevieve E. Velicaria-Guevarra said. 

“With the main harvest season coming in March, our latest inventory shows sufficient palay stocks in NFA warehouses that can be released, allowing the NFA to buy palay at a fair price from our farmers continuously.”

According to the Provincial Local Government of Oriental Mindoro, it will continue assisting the DA, Food Terminal Inc., and the National Food Authority in logistics to ensure rice reaches intended beneficiaries on time.