THE PLUNGE in prices for highland vegetables in the Cordillera is considered normal, according to a Department of Agriculture (DA) Official.

This, after farmers were greeted by the low prices of vegetables sold at the La Trinidad Trading Post and Benguet Agri–Pinoy Trading Center in La Trinidad.

“We monitored the prices of vegetables in trading post daily. This first week of January, it declined by 30 percent and that’s normal, because of the high prices and the demand during Christmas and New Year. Right after the holidays, it will really go down,” DA Cordillera Administrative Region regional director Cameron Odsey told SunStar Baguio.

The agriculture official and DA Secretary Emmanuel Piñol stated in an official online post that traders refused to buy the vegetables delivered by the farmers because the floods in Bicol prevented them from shipping the commodities to Bicol and Visayas.