The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The Department of Agriculture and Marketing Cooperatives (DAMC) with the Centenary Farmer’s Market (CFM), Department of Agriculture (DoA) and Bhutan Agriculture and Food Regulatory Authority (BAFRA) will conduct a vegetable auction in Thimphu from 5 September.
This is done to support the ministry’s goal to achieve vegetable self-sufficiency in next two years through improved system of marketing local produce.
The Director of DAMC, Dorji Dhradhul, said the specific objective for such an initiative is to give alternative to Phuentsholing auction for farmers, increase supply at CFM Thimphu and to help lower (or stabilize price) for consumers with a possible decrease in the transportation costs, post harvest loss/spoilage due to less hours of travel, possible decrease in the number of links (middle men) in the value chain.
The registration will be done on Tuesdays from 6pm to 10 pm at the auction yard next to the bridge at the CFM and the auction will happen on Wednesdays starting from 5 September from 8.30 am.
Highly perishable vegetables like broccoli and ferns will have to be brought from 7.30-8.30 am on the auction day and the buyers have to register at the CFM auction yard; DAMC office at CFM, and at CFM Management Office.
The minimum quantity per commodity for auction is 30 kilos and a nominal service charge will be levied on the buyers and the sellers. The one time target is 50 to 60 tonnes of vegetable as the auction yard is built to accommodate only 70 metric tonnes.
“We are restricting the amount due to limitation of storage capacity,” he said adding that there are two kind of risks in this- one is that people might bring excess vegetables which they have to take back and the other is the turn out might be very less.
The calculation of the total amount to be auctioned was based on the consumption and production pattern.
Why only in Thimphu? Does Thimphu constituete Bhutan’s population? Why can’t MoAF similarly conduct in other dzongkhags so that all the farmers in the country are benefited otherwise there will be a disparity in terms of socio-economic benefits…
they don’t have cold storage in other auction yard to save poor farmer economic that’s why they feel Thimphu is best hahahahha
Please think of giving the vendors/ farmers better storage facility – like refrigerators to store their farm produce in the farmer’s market. Just visit the CFM on a Sunday and you will see how perishable they veges and fruits get in just 3 days especially in summer months.
Al this time the MOA had been sleeping ! Still, they don’t have any concrete plans and the civil servants avail so much ex- country trainings. Why not simply give that opportunity to private people. They will at least put it to use.
DAMC will in due course of time carry out in otehr potential districts as well, so just wait. RAMCO is MOngar is doing the same for your info