Davao school kids to get free Cavendish bananas DAVAO CITY, June 18 (PNA) -- Public students will get a chance to taste fresh Cavendish bananas for free as local producers here will soon launch a three-month school feeding program in the cities of Davao and Digos, Davao del Sur. “We like to feed the small children of selected public schools here our delicious, ripened yellow fresh Cavendish bananas as part of the national campaign of the government’s food nutrition program that promotes only healthy snack foods in all public schools,” said Rene Dalayon, chief executive officer of the Federation of Banana Cooperatives (FEDCO) and chair of the banana industry cluster. Dalayon told consultants of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) about their plans during a recent industry meeting at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)regional office here. Dalayon said this school feeding program, to take place from July to September this year, is part of their marketing strategy to promote and develop domestic market for fresh Cavendish bananas in the country. “While these school kids are still young, they’ll get used to eating our bananas as snack food and will eventually look for them when they grow up in groceries and supermarkets,” Dalayon said. Two ripening room facilities for fresh Cavendish bananas had been installed in Davao and Cebu cities funded by grants for shared service facility (SSF) by the departments of agriculture (DA) and of trade and industry (DTI). Dalayon said the two ripening room facilities will be used for bananas to be distributed during their School Feeding Program in the cities of Davao and Digos, Davao del Sur. Installing a ripening room facility in Cebu City, according to Dalayon, is also part of their marketing strategy to promote and develop the domestic market for fresh Cavendish bananas under the FEDCO label in selected commercial outlets in Cebu and Davao cities. “We want to see our fresh bananas in the supermarkets, fresh fruit stores, groceries and convenience stores in these two cities, most specially in Cebu where our banana is getting a lot of attention and demand,” Dalayon said. To be set into motion from 2013 to 2015, this marketing strategy will start with a series of meetings with managers, owners, purchasing managers and merchandisers of supermarkets, groceries, fresh fruit stores and other commercial outlets in Davao and Cebu. (PNA) PDS/ASA/AURELIO A. PENA/LDP
Posted on: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:41:04 +0000
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