NTA Cagayan and tobacco farmers monitored online the first loading of tobacco for this year’s trading season in Region 2 from the Branch Office in Tuguegarao City on May 25.
The farmers, all Burley growers from Battung in Tuao, Cagayan, witnessed on the TV monitor at the Branch Office the virtual grading and classification of their tobacco at the buying stations of Universal Leaf Philippines, Inc. (ULPI) in Reina Mercedes, Isabela. Branch Chief Agriculturist Gilbert A. Taguiam and OIC Senior TPRO Moises D. Duran supervised onsite the activities at the buying stations.
Before the opening of the trading, NTA Cagayan Manager Dr. Corazon R. Riazonda briefed the farmers on the online buying of tobacco. She encouraged them to ask questions if they have concerns on the grading and classification. “We will transmit all your questions immediately to the buying station to be addressed by the graders and our own staff on-site,” she said.
Tobacco Production and Regulation Officers and Job-order trading clerks helped the farmers at the Branch Office in the documentation of the grades and classifications of their tobacco.
This is the first time that the ULPI implemented the online buying in tobacco buying stations in the region as a safety measure to avoid infection of COVID-19 virus during trading operations. This was first launched by ULPI at its buying station in Rosales, Pangasinan on April 19.
[Source: NTA Cagayan FB / Photo credit: Maricar De Leon]