The Marcos Jr government’s policy of importation and the Department of Agriculture’s epic failure to stop price manipulation and unscrupulous trading practices are to blame for the plunging prices of temperate vegetables in the Cordillera region.

At the start of the year, farmgate prices of carrots reportedly nosedived to a meager Php1 per kilo resulting in rotting supply in many farms. Chinese cabbage plunged to P8 per kilo while cauliflower costs P20-25 per kilo. Some vegetable farmers even described their situation as “suicidal” as they persist in farming and harvesting temperate vegetables without any assurance of recovering their production expenses.

“The Marcos administration and the DA’s default policy of importation as “a fix-all to solution” to the country’s agricultural woes is a bane to the entire agricultural sector. Importation worsens agricultural smuggling, hoarding, price manipulation, and other profit-making schemes of greedy traders,” according to the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas.

𝐎𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐑𝐏 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞, 𝐯𝐞𝐠𝐠𝐢𝐞𝐬

The suggested retail price (SRP) will remain as it is — a suggestion that is most often neglected by traders and retailers. Then and now, the imposition of SRP will not create an impact on prices.

“Persisting high prices of rice and food is a result of the government’s own doing. At the end of the supply chain, consumers always bear the high prices of foodstuff. At the farm gates, farmers endure low buying prices of rice and vegetables. Malacanang and DA are all talk and no work in “using its powers and remedies to protect farmers and consumers.” Even DA Sec. Francis Tiu-Laurel admitted that they are not keen on controlling prices at the moment due to the volatile global prices of rice and other agricultural products.

This situation of high prices further warrants a stronger unity among farmers and stakeholders in asserting the reversal of liberalization policies that have wreaked the agriculture sector over the decades. In every way they can, farmers, fisherfolks, and even consumers must assert and uphold the strengthening of local agricultural production to address this state-sponsored food insecurity. ###