The primary purpose of the study was to analyze the marketing operation of three secondary cooperatives and 15 traders engaged in onion and rice. KASAMNE the only secondary coop existing in the province for onion and FEPACOM and NEMCOOP for rice served as the source of information.
Results indicated that the federations provided vital services to its member coops as fund conduits of loans from the Land Bank; as source of credit using the federation’s own funds; and an outlet of their produce. However, these associations could not operate efficiently as compared to the traders due to insufficient capital for product procurement; inadequate equipment and facilities; weak management capability; and poor patron7age of its members. In fact, if prices were relatively good, the members prefer to sell to the traders and just pay the loans to the association in cash.
For KASAMNE, which owns and manages a cold storage, the marketing of the stored crops is still under the control of the primaries. Thus, the marketing operation depends largely on the primary coops while the federation only coordinates in product marketing. For rice, even if the disposal of the stored crops rests on the federation, their operations are still inefficient since the volume handled is quite small.
It can be concluded that the marketing of rice and onion is still controlled by traders and the federations only serve as assemblers of these products which are ultimately sold to the middlemen. The federations simply act as collectors of loan repayments and distributors of farm inputs.
The federations’ problems include fund insufficiency, stiff competition, inadequate market information and absence of established market outlets.
The sample organizations are willing to engage in intercoop trading to improve their operations and the marketing of their produce.
