Tuesday, June 24, 2008 Exec fears vegetable prices won't go down By Joy Romares-Sevilla
THE president of the Vegetable Council of the Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Division (Amad), a unit of the regional office of the Department of Agriculture (DA), said the prices of vegetables would continue to increase following the increase in the prices of fertilizers.
Roger Gualberto, Vegetable Council president, told Sun.Star Davao Monday that prices of vegetables are starting to go up already because of its high demand in Luzon.
"Prices of vegetables will continue to increase because of the increase in the prices of fertilizers which now climbed up to 20 to 25 percent, that would mean triple the price of fertilizers compared before," Gualberto said.
"There is also a high demand in Luzon because of the typhoon," he added.
Gualberto said the increase in the prices of fertilizers was caused by the increase in prices of petroleum.
"Anything that is petroleum-based will be affected. For example, the 18460 type of fertilizer which only costs P1,450 before, was placed at P3,000 plus now," Gualberto said.
He added that it is possible that farmers will divert to other crops because the increase in the prices of fertilizers has a negative impact to the vegetable industry.
"The negative impact of the increase in the prices of fertilizers would be less vegetables because of its high cost that farmers could not afford to buy it," he said.
He also noted that with the present situation in the vegetable industry, vegetable gross would definitely be affected.
"Usually, prices of vegetables go up during classes, but I don't think that it will go down after this quarter, now that there is the increase in the prices of fertilizers," he added.
The Amad Vegetable Council is composed of all stakeholders of the vegetable industry all over the region.
Gualberto said the Council could only extend technical support to farmers such as trainings.
"We can only give free trainings, we cannot support them financially," he said.
Meanwhile, in a quick visit at the vegetable section of the Agdao public market Monday, prices of vegetables are high compared last week's prices.
A 10-peso per kilogram has been added to prices of potato, ginger, carrots, and raddish, which prices last week are placed at P50, P80, P30, and P30, respectively.
Prices of eggplant, string beans, bell pepper, cabbage, and onion, on the other hand, were up by P5 compared last week.
