SM City Puerto Princesa and Yamang Bukid partner in supporting local farmers through the local product expo, Shop Palawan. The expo features local produce and fresh harvest products from far-flung farmers of the City that don’t have means to sell their fruits and vegetables to any online and physical market.
Shop Palawan officially opens last Aug 14, a special section in the ground floor of the said mall that also offers other local products and farming tools and organic fertilizers for those who venture in planting these days. The expo will last until end of the month.
“This is just a trial period. We have plans in expanding this depending on the response of the local market, that’s why we are encouraging everyone to support this initiative, because this is an initiative giving our SME’s the opportunity to cope with the crisis and eventually bounce back,” Russel Fernandez, Public Relations Officer of SM City Puerto Princesa said.
Yamang Bukid is the one gathering all this fresh produce from different barangays in the City such as Brgy. Sicsican, Brgy. Irawan, Sta. Lourdes, Tagburos and Tagbarungis. Being an advocate of food security, the Yamang Bukid assures that those they sell in the expo pass their standard in making sure it is grown organically and was not harmed by any chemicals.
“This project started during the pandemic, we saw the flight ng mga local farmers natin na they lack logistics, and they lack access to bring their fresh produce sa City at sa mga consumers nila, so what we did, we talked to these farmers, and then we bought their fresh produce at the very reasonable price, yung presyo nila hindi kami nanghihingi ng discounts, we are not middle man here what we did is we provide logistics, ang ginagawa na lang namin ay naglalagay kami ng kunting tubo sa fuel na ginagamit namin to deliver,” Hope Alas, Farmer from Yamang Bukid said.
The SM management also announced that this Expo is available with their delivery partners for online orders. It is open daily during Mall hours from 10 in the morning till 7 in the evening.
“Since SM City Puerto Princesa has its own delivery partners, it has its own delivery platforms so pwede pong umo-order thru online,” Fernandez added.