Sunday, February 29, 2004
Predator mites still a threat to cutflowers in La Trinidad

BEHIND the success of the annual Panagbenga Flower Festival are the unsung cutflower growers of La Trinidad, Benguet, which is why the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) recently revealed they are closely coordinating with cutflower growers to thwart possible attack of predator mites in plantations there.

This developed as Patricio Ananayo of the BPI regional office acknowledged that cutflower growers in Barangays Bahong, Tawang, Bineng and Alno, all in La Trinidad town, contribute to the success of Baguio's flower festival.

In these fields grow most of the flowers used on Panagbenga floats and in other "explosions of colors" during the grand street-dancing parade, the float parade and in the Burnham Lake fluvial fest.

Ananayo said that mite attacks on flower plantations in La Trinidad would cause a decline in cutflower production. He said that the bulk of flowers used to decorate the floats that paraded on Sunday were harvested from La Trinidad.

Since the birth of Panagbenga in 1995, Ananayo said that there was a noted increase in the income of cutflower growers in Benguet, even as the prices of cutflowers remained steady.

Although it was noted that the street price of roses doubled on Valentine's Day, he said.

Ananayo said the Department of Agriculture regional office in the Cordilleras is expanding its assistance to the industry with technology dissemination to make cutflower growers in Benguet more productive .

He said that concerned agencies are constantly conducting trainings and seminars for cutflower growers and are also conducting surveys and monitoring plantation sites.

Mites attack on flower gardens in 2001 caused a major decline in cutflower produce in La Trinidad, known as the "Flower Capital of the Philippines."

The DA-CAR earlier reported that Benguet is the biggest producer of roses and chrysanthemums in the country.

In La Trinidad alone, close to 2,000 hectares have been planted to roses.

Anthuriums, baby's breath and daises are the secondary cutflower produce in the flower fields of the province.

He also reported that Benguet contributes to the bulk of cutflower products exported to Japan, the United States, Korea, the Netherlands, Portugal and Canada.

In recent years, the export market even expanded to include Singapore, Hong Kong and Italy.

The major buyer of dried cutflowers is the Netherlands, which imported around 41 percent of the country's total cutflower exports from 1995 to 1999, with an annual average volume of 22 metric tons.

The United States, meanwhile, is the major buyer of fresh foliage, getting 69 percent of the total Philippine exports from 1995 to 1999 with an annual average volume imported of 430 metric tons valued at US$413,240. Jane Cadalig