Benguet vegetable farmers ”disposing” of produce due to oversupply, DA to help

January 10, 2019

La Trinidad, Benguet  – Tons of harvested carrots, potatoes and cabbages are left by vegetable growers to rot in gardens at northern Benguet.

August Balanoy, general manager of the Benguet Farmers Marketing Cooperative, said farmers are “disposing” their produce as prices have fallen to record lows.

A 300 percent oversupply caused prices to dip so low, Balanoy explained, indicating that farmers have harvested around 3.5 million kilos daily since the start of the year from the normal 1.2 million kilos.

Demand during this time, Balanoy said, is not the same as in the holidays.

Farmers experienced  glut because of weather disturbances in the third and last quarter of 2017 that interfered with normal production and marketing schedule, Balanoy explained.

He asked the agriculture department to intervene.

“We ask the agriculture department to step in on marketing (Benguet vegetables),” Balanoy said “There are 6-8 layers (of the market) from the farmer to the end users of vegetables,” Balanoy raised.

Agriculture Secretary Manny Pinol, in his Facebook page, said he received reports that traders refused to buy vegetables delivered to the Benguet Vegetable Trading Center because floods in Bicol due to Tropical Depression ''Usman'' prevented them from delivering them to Bicol and the Visayas.

Pinol said the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. will meet to start the process of validating vegetable farmers who suffered losses and the estimated value of the produce they threw away.

The validation could take two weeks, said Pinol.

Most farmers who lost their vegetables are beneficiaries of the Production Loan Access credit program of the DA which gives them up to P500,000 to an interest of six percent yearly.

Pinol said the department through the Agricultural Credit Policy Council  has allocated P100 million for Cordillera vegetable farmers. DMS