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BAGUIO CITY— Vegetables were dumped along a roadside in Benguet province on Sunday, but that may not be an isolated case of farmers giving up on their harvests.
Prolonged rains, days of long queues at La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Post and rock-bottom prices are now forcing growers to harvest prematurely and risk losing even more of their produce to spoilage, vegetable traders said on Wednesday.
Lorna Cristina Menzi, adviser of the League of Associations at the La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Area Inc., said cabbage and carrots were particularly vulnerable as continuous rains cause produce to deteriorate faster while farmers struggled to find buyers.
As of Wednesday, cabbage classified as “first class” was selling for only P25 to P30 per kilo, while “second class” cabbage fetched just P5 to P6 per kilo, Menzi said.
