Situated in the middle of sugarcane farms in Barangay San Fernando, 17 kms away from Talisay City proper are the resident- members of Hda. Esmeralda 2 Farmers Association or HES2RIFA.
This cooperative composed of 34 members received a rice retailing business starter kit from SIFI three years ago through the RSS Program. It was in November 2017 when they started with an initial capital of 10 sacks of 50 kgs. well-milled rice (5 sacks from RSS and 5 sacks their counterpart).
Over time, HES2RIFA garnered a total net profit of P36,567 for their coop. Inspired by their success, the members decided to open a consumer store in 2018 using their own funds to construct the store. SIFI assisted them with business orientations, inventory control and working capital. Aside from rice retailing, they now sell wholesale to 7 smaller stores in their area.
Recently, the SIFI- RSS program, after evaluating their positive growth, assisted them further on how to scale up by adding frozen food products to their inventory which are difficult to access in their area. SIFI provided a chest freezer and P5000 working capital to help them with their livelihood expansion.
To quote their Chairperson Marivic Demaruel: “This has long been a dream of our coop. To have a consumer store that sells a wide array of basic household goods, especially frozen products. We thank SIFI and RSS for making our dream come true.”
As they move along with their steady sales, the coop’s main goal is to provide easy access to the basic food needs of their members and other farmer-households and save unnecessary transportation expenses while providing quality products at affordable prices. Life will be better for this community because of HES2RIFA.
