Sagada veggies reach door to door sale in Manila

Farmers load vegetables to a truck driven straight to Manila and distributed by a contact  in a door to door arrangement.  

By Gina Dizon

SAGADA, MOUNTAIN PROVINCE- The new normal at this times of the Covid pandemic comes to be advantageous for vegetable farmers able to recoup their expenses at reasonable cost with veggies sold directly in Manila through the aid of a friendly contact.

Now on its eigth run in July 29, the local government unit of Sagada through the office of the municipal agriculturist (OMAG) facilitate market of local vegetables and other products to Manila with waiting customers having pre-ordered their chosen goods.

The normal run of the market for vegetables has it that the farmer relies on the market price of vegetables in Baguio or Manila and gamble on predetermined expectations of ‘waday swerte waday malas’ (good luck or bad luck).

               Having a quick run to La Trinidad or Baguio expecting a price of P100 peso per kilo of red cabbage for example and discovering that the price has dived to P20 per kilo opun reaching Baguio is disastrous for the farmer  who incurred high transportation and production costs. Good if the market price maintained the expectation or even got higher but if not, its tough luck and spells misery for the farmer who went through months of hard labor and expensive inputs.

And it was that system before the new normal marketing system happened.  

This Covid pandemic opened new and secured remedies to sell local products to Manila while observing protocols in addressing the threats of Covid-19.  
Maria Ap-apid, municipal agriculturist said directly selling the vegetables to Manila through the help of a friend of the town is a big help to farmers who have difficulties in marketing their products at this time of the Covid pandemic.

At the height of the Covid pandemic in March, Mayor James Pooten contacted Tracy Santiago a long-time friend of Sagada based in Manila to help in the sale of locally raised vegetables.

And so it was  that tons of tomatoes and bell pepper were left to rot in the farms due to these not having been transported to La Trinidad, Baguio or Santiago Isabela in the early days of the pandemic.

Sagada produces tons of temperate vegetables-  tomatoes, cabbage (red and green), wombok, cucumber, bell pepper, carrots, sayote, sweet peas, and beans the whole year round and its normal market sold in town and nearby places of Bontoc, Isabela and Baguio.

In this new normal marketing strategy, temperate crops including eggplants raised by some 40 gardeners reach the capital city of Manila twice a month with some 1.5 to 5 tons per trip the past eight runs since April 7.

Other products carried to Manila are home -made goods- jams, jellies, coffee, ham, etag (smoked meat) and recently pottery goods- all processed by Sagada’s entrepreneurs.

Local products- veggies and home processed foods – are usually marketed in town and in nearby Baguio, La Trinidad, Isabela and the Ilocos before the occurrence of the Covid pandemic.

Locally made products- jams, jellies, cookies, etag, pickles, woven bags, and ceramics were bought by tourists in town who come from Baguio, Manila. Ilocos, Visayas, Davao, and foreigners having reached their peak at 180,000 arrivals separately in the past two years.

The new normal market strategy of the LGU is made possible with a hired truck and a contact in Manila who does the orders.   

Vegetables priced from 25 to 40 pesos per kilogram at farm gate price are delivered at door to door arrangement with reasonable market prices by a partner in Manila.

Temperate vegetables mostly raised in the food basket of southern Sagada and some at the central town faced marketing problems this Covid pandemic times.

With the Covid threat, LGU protocols require drivers coming from outside to undergo a 14-day stay at the Pegew quarantine site while another home- based driver drives the vehicle home with back-load goods if there are some.

And for the driver who goes outside to Covid- infected Manila and pass through equally covid-infected Baguio holds a health declaration and municipal pass, his driver’s ID and a food pass from the office of the municipal agriculturist.   

In two consecutive times during the first and second runs to Manila, veggies transported from town were transferred to a container van of the regional Department of Agriculture (DA)  at Pegew checkpoint where the initial 5 tons of veggies were eventually transported to Manila. The driver who came from Baguio was the one who drove the vehicle to Manila.  

The DA took charge of the fuel and the driver’s allowance twice. Toll fees were paid by the contact in Manila.

On the third run onwards, local vehicles transported the goods straight to Manila. The truck of the LGU transported the goods in four consecutive times to Manila and farmers paid P7.00 per kg of their products to answer for the fuel and travel cost. Toll fees were especially paid by Masferre’s and Log Cabin Café from the 3rd to the 6th run. 

Beginning in the third run, boxes of home-made jams and jellies and some 200- 400 packs of coffee from the Sagada Coffee Growers and Producers Organization  (SACGPO) are carried each week to Manila. 

Locally made ceramic products caught up in the market in the 7^th run.

With the opening up of the economy in Manila in June, orders slowed down reaching some 1.5 tons of veggies. Processed foods were still ordered. 

The seventh and the recent trip are now being transported by a private truck and market of local veggies and homemade stuff continues. The municipal agriculturist office still maintains to facilitate coordination of farmers’ products and other home-made stuff to Manila.    

Now on uniform transportation cost, farmers and other entrepreneurs who have their goods carried to Manila pay the usual freight cost of P7.00 per kg of their products for the transport cost. The usual transport cost of vehicles to Manila from Sagada is P18,000 per trip  and vice versa. 

With goods in quantity at a freight price of P7.00 per kg, the private truck owner/businessman has to find other products not necessarily ordered by the LGU contact in Manila to recoup his expenses and backload products which maybe are ordered in Sagada.

At a time when the Covid pandemic shall end, shall the market system currently practiced continue?

Ap-apid said it will with the cooperation of private parties.

Sagada especially the southern part composed of barangays Balugan, Suyo and Ankileng and the outskirts of central Sagada in Ambasing, Demang, Patay and Dagdag grow both vegetables and fruits. Vegetables include both temperate and traditional root crops- corn, camote, cassava, gabi, legumes and rice.

Sagada is still largely agricultural with 85 percent farmers planting traditional crops. Barely 200 farmers plant temperate commercial crops.

During this Covid pandemic, some inn keepers, souvenir shop owners, tourist guides and their respective families have resorted to gardening of vegetables and traditional crops, sale of veggies, fruits, processed foods, dry goods, livestock sale and ‘wagwag’ or ukay-ukay; and construction work.

Some women cook home-made meals- shanghai lumpia, pansit, puto, turon, lumpia- and sell these door to door in the immediate town marketed via Facebook.

Other residents are in the usual sarisari store and dry goods business.

The rest of the populace are a few employed in government and cooperative organizations.    

Economy goes on and life is still good for Covid- free culture- rich Sagada as the community people conduct their usual customary practices.