BM Deny Ortega: Food Establishments in LU should patronize Local Produce
By: Rafael C. Mosuela, GPC-SP | Photos By: GPC-SP | Date: June 15, 2021
The Sangguniang Panlalawigan approved on June 15, 2021, Resolution No. 887-2021 encouraging food establishments in La Union to patronize produce of local farmers and fisherfolks.
Board Member Geraldine Ortega, who authored the said resolution, recently has called on all food establishments in the province to help local fishermen and farmers recover from the onslaught of the pandemic.
In a statement, she said that the province is basically an agricultural province with 54,701 hectares or 36.64% of its total land area is devoted to agriculture and as conferred by the Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Unit, through the High Value Crops Development Program, the llocos provinces are the country’s largest producers of high- value crops such as mango, tobacco, peanut, mungbean, tomato, garlic, onion, eggplant and pepper and second top producer of cabbage, water melon; and third top producer of bitter gourd (ampalaya), okra and string beans, among others.
BM Ortega cited the vision of the Province of La Union to be the "Heart of Agri-Tourism in Northern Luzon by 2025," a La Union Transformative Agricultural Framework for Self-Sufficiency was developed to attain its vision, and one strategy is to empower farmers and fisherfolks and intensify marketing of their agricultural products.
“Purchasing goods and services of our province has economic impact, it gives more income to our farmers. Patronizing our locally produced products, we are also helping small businesses remain viable in a competitive market, increase local employment and our local economy will be able to survive,” BM Ortega added.
Further, she emphasized that since the pandemic began last year, many businesses in the province have closed and the immense increase of unemployment was remarkable.
“We need to urge these establishments to support and patronize the products in the province to help the province’s economy bounce back, and as the saying goes, charity should begin at home and promoting/ supporting will surely help our farmers and fisherfolks in these challenging times,” she said.
