Veggie prices to remain stable

Prices of local vegetables should remain stable in spite of the cold spell affecting the country’s vegetable bowl in the north, agriculture officials said yesterday.

Disputing initial reports that the damage to vegetable crops in the north could reach P10 million, Assistant Agriculture Secretary Salvador Salacup told The STAR that the damage had not been as extensive as earlier feared, based on field reports from Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) regional unit directors Cesar Rodriguez and Boy Santos.

Salacup said the initial estimate by the Department of Agriculture of possible losses from the cold spell may only be around P1 million to P1.5 million, though the DA continues to double-check this figure.

He added that Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap has instructed the DA-CAR regional field unit to closely monitor the cold spell’s effect on vegetable farms and immediately extend assistance to farmers in Benguet and Mountain Province by distributing seeds and facilitating the opening of rural credit windows.

Field inspections by the regional field unit show that farms planted to celery and carrots were among those adversely affected by the cold spell.

Salacup said the DA will initially distribute the seeds for free to farmers affected by the cold spell to help them replant their farms as part of the department’s measures to minimize production losses and prevent the disruption of supply.

Benguet and Mountain Province supply about 65 percent of Metro Manila’s demand for vegetables. Salacup said around 150 trucks leave the La Trinidad, Benguet trading post daily to deliver 2,000 metric tons of assorted highland vegetables to major drop-off points such as Divisoria in Manila and Balintawak in Quezon City. — Marianne Go