LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- Strawberries from Argentina have reached the province.
Gov. Nestor Fongwan with Provincial Agriculturist Lolita Bentres distributed P5,000,000 worth of strawberry planting materials to local farmers.
Fongwan said the materials were ordered from Argentina to add to the planting needs of local farmers. There were over 200 farmers who received the materials and members of the Benguet Farmers Marketing Cooperative were also benefitted.
Bentres said half of the Sweet Charley strawberry variety materials were distributed to the various nurseries in the province for propagation and tissue culturing. Nurseries in Atok town and two in La Trinidad were given the Argentinian berries intended for propagation and eventual distribution to local farmers just the same.
Bentres said the berries in the nurseries would have doubled and will be given to farmers in the province, adding that the planting materials were not given as dole out to farmers but were sold at P100 per planting material.
Planting season starts for berries this month in time for harvest season on November, which is the start of the peak for the product running till summer.
The province capital, La Trinidad, has kept the moniker for its fresh berries and stamped its recognition with a Guinness World record for the largest strawberry cake in the 2005 and is known to have a thriving vegetable and strawberry producing town.
In La Trinidad, almost 60 percent of the revenue is from cut flower production, almost 20 percent is from vegetable production, and the remaining 10 percent is from strawberry production.
At the strawberry fields, there is a 38-hectare field owned by the state university known to have the biggest yield in berries. There are over 500 farmers in the fields divided into two associations.