The Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) recently launched a market venue called “Dairy Box Dairy Delicatessen” to bring the carabao farmers’ buffalo-derived products closer to the market.
The Dairy Box carries the tagline “Go local, go dairy”, which is anchored on its purpose of serving tourists and locals interested in buying freshly made products that use buffalo’s milk as main ingredient.
The one-stop shop showcases and sells pasalubong (gift or present) treats and pastries of the Catalanacan Multi-Purpose Cooperative (CAMPC) and other local dairy buffalo farmers’ cooperatives.
Among these products are espasol de leche, macapuno, bibingkang gatas, macaroons, leche flan, bibingkang kanin, pulvoron, tibok-tibok, sapin-sapin and chicharabao. Other upcoming products that will be soon available in the shop are buko pie, lechetin, yema (duche de leche), piayema, dairy tarts, dairy empanada and mini cupcakes.
The Dairy Box looks forward to becoming a “go-to” destination for travelers, thereby contributing to food tourism in Nueva Ecija.
The one-stop shop is strategically located along Maharlika Highway, Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, just beside Milka Krem, which is PCC’s central milk processing facility.
Essentially, the Dairy Box is an infrastructure support for smallholder dairy farmers designed to provide them with an opportunity to gain access to the commercial market for greater income.
“It’s been a dream of PCC to launch a one-stop dairy hub that will focus on marketing quality products made by our local dairy cooperatives. It is about empowering our dairy farmers to continue to grow through provision of opportunity for value-adding, thus giving them additional income. Given the right market at the right place at the right time, at the right quality and packaging we believe in PCC, that dairy production will improve a lot,” PCC Acting Executive Director Arnel N. Del Barrio said in his message during the Dairy Box’s grand opening.
Present during the occasion were farmer-members of the CAMPC and Eastern Primary Multi-Purpose Cooperative as well as key officials from the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), local government unit of the Science City of Munoz (LGU-Munoz) and PCC staff.
The grand opening coincided with signing of two Memoranda of Agreement: (1) between PCC and PhilMech for the “design and development of an engine-driven baling machine”, and (2) between PCC and CAMPC, DAR, DTI, and LGU-Muñoz for the “village-level processing center enhancement program”.
