Cheaper, quality food market opens in QC

Some 120,000 residents in Quezon City and nearby towns can now buy cheaper yet premium-quality food items with the opening yesterday of a government-subsidized talipapa (small public market) in Barangay Pansol, Quezon City.

The so-called Barangay Food Terminal (BFT) outlet, which was inaugurated by Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, is the fourth in a series of similar projects being undertaken by the government to ensure a steady supply of food at affordable prices for urban poor families.

The BFT outlet will sell rice, fish, meat, vegetables and other basic goods at prices cheaper by as much as 10 percent than those sold at regular wet markets and other retail outlets.

Yap said the BFT, which is among the hunger-mitigation measures being put in place by the Department of Agriculture on orders of President Arroyo, will help the poor gain access to more affordable but high-quality food items.

"Small farm growers and fish suppliers are also among the prime beneficiaries of this talipapa project, because they can directly sell their products through these BFT outlets without having to go through middlemen and other unnecessary trading layers that shave off a portion of their profits and unduly jack up the retail cost of basic goods," Yap said. – Perseus Echeminada