La Trinidad
• Capital town of Benguet Province
La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Post (LTVTP)
• Located at the back of La Trinidad Municipal Hall
• A.K.A. “Benguet Trading post” and tagged as the marketing center for high value commercial crops in the Philippines
• Trading Post comes originally from Western cowboy books
Background
• Mid 1970’s
- La Trinidad is a sleepy town, with vegetable growing as its main economic activity.
- Primary producers of salad crops
- Baguio City was the main marketing place for agricultural products and it experiences congestion in its main market place, causing traffic congestion, which is an indicator of development
- The congestion causes spillover effects in La Trinidad, on its main highway mushroomed private bodegas for vegetable packing
- Manila-based entrepreneurs established the HARANG SYSTEM (or the entry of middlemen)
• Late 70’s and Early 80’s
- La Trinidad with economic and social changes; slight traffic, entrance of Manila-based Filipino-Chinese entrepreneurs
- LGU government gets a US AID peace corps volunteer and was assigned to come up with a project feasibility study for a trading post which was then submitted in 1983
- LGU foresees boom in the vegetable industry, encourage farmers to go into high value cash crops such as strawberries and cutflowers
- Funding for the LTVTP was granted in early 1980’s through economic support fund
- The project costs Php12.4M by which 30% was granted by the Philippine Government as a loan amounting to Php3.7M and the remaining 70% granted by the US AID Fund amounting to Php8.7M
Objectives
- House the wholesale trading operation of Benguet vegetable industry
- Increase revenue based of farmers
- Serve as a venue for more effective and efficient system of marketing and distribution
- Increase the LGU