Saturday, October 13, 2007 Supply lack triggers hike in veggie prices By Joy Romares-Sevilla
PRICES of vegetables are higher compared to last week's, a monitoring conducted Friday in Bankerohan public market, one of the biggest public markets in Davao City, showed.
Tropical vegetables like ampalaya, squash, bell pepper, string beans, and eggplant are now sold at P35, P10, P50, P15, and P18 per kilogram for retail buying, respectively.
Nassie Pama, vegetable vendor at the Metro Circle or the "bagsakan center" at the Bankerohan public market, told Sun.Star Davao that the price movements are mainly due to lack of supply because of the rains experienced in the Davao Region during the period.
"The volume of our vegetable supplies that come from Marilog, Bansalan, General Santos City, and from Malita is not consistent this week, the reason suppliers increased the wholesale prices of the vegetables," Pama said.
Pama claimed among the tropical vegetables, prices of bell pepper significantly increased from P40 per kilogram last week to P50 kilogram at present, while squash increased its prices by only P1 for both retail and wholesale buying.
Meanwhile, Pama said prices of tomato decreased this week.
"The supply of tomato is very high. It is now sold at P10 per kilogram for wholesale and P15 per kilogram for retail.
