Ghanim International Corporation has activated its Buy Local Produce Campaign (BLPC) to help local farmers access markets during the ongoing second wave of the COVID-19 outbreak.
BLPC has engaged 32 growers supplying up to 93 different types of produce since its introduction in April last year during the first outbreak of COVID-19.
Through the campaign, the government-owned Ghanim buys from local producers directly and supplies them to their retail network, which now includes their own Junction outlets, supermarkets, and restaurants as well as e-commerce platforms Agrome Market and Community for Brunei.
BLPC is currently focusing on collecting produce from the closed tamus or markets in Tutong and Seria every Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. Ghanim sets up a counter at the tamus on these days for farmers to drop off their produce. The first collection was made in Seria on August 12.
The main tamus of Tutong and Seria have been shuttered as they are points of mass gatherings every Thursday and Saturday respectively, where large numbers of vendors set up shop for the day.
CEO of Ghanim Dr Nur Rahman said BLPC is open to farmers of all districts, and plans to maintain the campaign in the long-term, having set up a dedicated business unit within their organisation for its expansion.
“The BLPC initiative is now a business unit at Ghanim and has aspirations to continue growing the initiative sustainably,” he said of BLPC, which operates Monday to Thursday and Saturday.
“After the re-opening of the tamu in July last year, we decided to continue the BLPC initiative as we saw the opportunity and benefit to continue providing our local producers alternative avenues and wider market access for their produce.”
Farmers looking to participate in BLPC can contact Ghanim at 7180064 with details including the list of their products, amount and price, preferably three days in advance for Ghanim to find buyers and make other arrangements.
