BY LEANDER C. DOMINGO
BAMBANG, Nueva Vizcaya (September 20)—In the face of pandemic, this province launched a web-based portal for trading fruits and vegetables.
The Department of Science and Technology (DoST) in Cagayan Valley, the Nueva Vizcaya State University and the Nueva Vizcaya Agricultural Terminal Inc. (NVAT) collaborated and came up with “KABS 21 Project: A Web-Based Trading System of Fruits and Vegetables,” which will also help lessen the movement of residents and avoid transmission of the dreaded virus.
To enable this project, DoST-Region 2 Director Sancho Mabborang said the department has downloaded P1.5 million worth of assistance to upscale the marketing system of NVAT through the e-commerce portal.
“This innovation is a great help for farmers, as it opens a new avenue in commercializing their produce [amid] the Covid-19 pandemic,” Mabborang said.
Under beta testing on September 16, the newly developed portal’s website nvkrops.com started door-to-door deliveries of NVAT agriproducts to any point of the province through its logistics partner, e-Tulud Delivery Service.
With the minimum purchase of five kilos, the placing of orders is from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. by logging in and activating an account at https://nvkrops.com/shop. Consolidated orders are delivered after the cutoff. With a base shipping fee of P50 within the 5-km radius from the terminal, P5 is charged for every additional 1 km.
“Aside from being a click-away mode of buying, customers can choose the packaging of their purchase: either on plastic or box,” Mabborang said.
He said when fully tested, this e-commerce portal will be officially launched in November during the celebration of Regional Science and Technology Week.