Saturday, December 20, 2008 US recession to boost RP vegetable industry By Joy Romares-Sevilla
THE former chair of the vegetable council in Mindanao said Friday they are expecting a brighter prospect for the vegetable industry next year, claiming the effect of the recession in the United States is one of the factors that will help boost the industry's development.
In an interview with Sun.Star Davao, Roger Gualberto, former chair of the Vegetable Council in Southern Mindanao (Vicsmin), said that millions of Filipinos are expected to return home in 2009 because of the global crisis heightened by the US recession.
"We have a very good prospect for the industry next year. The recession in the US will benefit the industry here considering that millions of Filipinos will go home jobless. They would prefer to eat vegetables than meat because meat prices are also high," Gualberto said.
Gualberto said that prices of vegetables for the past three months have remained stable.
"Prices are stabilized amid high prices of other commodities," he said. But he was quick to add that by next week, they expect prices of selected vegetables to increase particularly those that are used as ingredients for Noche Buena food preparations, like carrots and potato.
"Farmers will have their last harvest for carrots and potato this Monday; the stocks will be until New Year. We also expect that the supply will not be enough. But as usual we will get stocks from Bukidnon, North and South Cotabato," he said.
Gualberto said that next year, Vicsmin will advocate more on marketing to further help farmers sell their produce.
As this developed, Vicsmin will initiate the first National Vegetable Marketing Summit to be held in Davao City.
The summit will be launched on January 5, 2009 and is aimed at developing a network for vegetable producers, buyers, and service providers.
