(Preda Fairtrade is now officially named Profairtrade.)
Hello, I am Panfilo T. Dumayas Living in Moriki, Kapalong, Davao Del Norte. I’ll start to tell about my story to you who are also interested in fair trading like me. I’m at the age of 57 and becoming 58 this November. My occupation is a carpenter and a mango farmer and also a backyard vegetable farmer for eggplant, bitter gourd and cucumber and so forth by myself with my family members. Just in case there’s some surplus, I sell them on the local markets.
I’m married and my wife is Remencia, We have 5 children. As a student in 1973, I had been working in construction site as a labour worker in order to support myself regarding school fee and allowance and at that time I started to learn carpentering by myself little by little. At 1986, I started to grow mango trees influenced by my friend who was already growing them and now they have grown big and produce fruit. I have 51 mango trees so far and earned about 20,000 pesos last year.
The first encounter with Preda FairTrade was in 2007 when I met with the Preda staff and heard about getting a higher fairer price. Since 2008,when I began trading with Preda Fairtrade , I learned how to save the land from pesticides and I use less chemical spray and instead, I am using the organic way like covering the fruit on the tree with old newspaper. This we call bagging, and we protect the fruit from insects. We small farmers can consolidate our fruit into one place and truck it to the processing plant at low cost with the help of the Profood consolidator a partner of Preda FairTrade this is very efficient as we team up and work together.
The most important reason I started to trade with Preda Fairtrade was big difference of mango price between the commercial price per kilo, frequently made low by a price fixing Barkada (cartel) and the higher Preda fairtrade price. For instance, middlemen buy 1kg mango at 5-10 pesos, Preda Fairtrade buys them 15-20 pesos per kg depending on going price changes but we are sure of 17 pesos a kilo which is very good for us small farmers. To me, income difference is huge that it turns out that for me and my family I earn almost double income. Besides I received 8,040 pesos premium cheque (a bonus from Preda Fairtrade) after I made my delivery to the Profood processing plant. It’s a big income.
Most important thing is Preda Fairtrade always has a personal interest in bringing more benefits to small farmers. For example, they give us small farmers ,the poorer ones, educational help to the children the village, they gave 69 bicycles with side car so we can bring the children to school and pick up paying passengers and earn more income. Preda Fairtrade staff who visit us quarterly a year provide valuable seminars and education training regarding Responsible parenting, Children’s right, Woman’s right and Fairtrade plus award educational assistance for our children.
When it comes to fair trade premium, I spend the money mostly for saving for the future, I pay all the needs for my children. We small farmers can keep our families close and the children are safe and secure and never run away to the city. I can afford, because of the mangos, to pay all allowances and school fee and use it for buying clothes for my children and improve my small house. Also I spend it for things for their schooling and living expenses such as buying rice. This time I will save some of the money that I received as Preda fairtrade premium for my children.
I strongly believe that fair-trading mango is good for consumers as well as producers. Yes, it is it’s dried without chemicals so is good for the health. I can guarantee that mangos produced by myself have higher quality without chemicals. Moreover, buyers and consumers can confirm which mango is from which producer¹s farm because there is a record of delivery at Profood. When our mangos are delivered each farmers name is recorded and how many kilos of mangos. I’d hope just to maintain our reliable partnership as much as longer.
Lastly, I dream of having a better living environment for my family and continue supporting my children’s they will to complete their study as far as they want. I am proud that one of my sons is very interested to carry on mango farming.
