BENGUET Governor Crescencio Pacalso assured that there is enough supply of highland vegetables from the province, tagged as the 'Salad of bowl of the country".
"The supply is there," stressed the governor during the Kapihan sa Benguet on Thursday, September 6.
"There is a regular increase in prices during these times but as to short supply I don't think there is. Perhaps the difficulty in transporting is one from here to any point of Luzon. But we cannot blame supply for the increase of prices. We know that. We visit the trading center. We have enough supply of vegetables," he added.
Pacalso said the heavy monsoon rains have damaged only about 10 percent of the total vegetable production from all 13 municipalities of the province.
The Office of the Provincial Agriculturist reported that as of September 3, some P73.778 million worth of crops were damaged by typhoon and the southwest monsoon. A total of 5,795 farmers and 878.45 hectares of farms were affected.
The municipality of Bokod incurred the highest loss as 1,117 farmers a land area of 107.05 hectares were affected. Atok came in second with 610 farmers followed by Buguias with 583 farmers.
"We have enough supply but at the time they need it and it's not there, it can cause temporary shortage. If there are huge landslide within Halsema which will take a day to clear, then that would already affect the delivery," the governor added.
Although there is enough supply, the prices of highland vegetables have increased.
"We try to study where this increase of prices is coming from. The prices the farmers get is far too low compared to price that we sell in the outlets outside Benguet. Parang hindi ata nagtutugma the people in between, middlemen, are getting more than the farmers. This had been a point of study and up to this time we haven't determined it yet," he added.
Benguet Agri-Pinoy Trading Center (BAPTC) chief of operations Dr. Violeta Salda also compared the prices in the province and lamented about the high prices in markets outside Benguet, particularly in Metro Manila, where prices have doubled.
Salda said the supply and operations remain stable at BAPTC, one of the largest trading facility in the province which houses some 1,600 facilitators with 250 cooperatives and 2,000 farmers.
With Benguet under state of calamity, the governor added they are now preparing for the rehabilitation of roads and clearing of debris.
