Bleak Xmas for Benguet farmers

By Dexter See

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — Thousands of farmers in this vegetable-producing province are facing a bleak Christmas and New Year after the prices of locally grown agricultural crops suddenly dropped the past several days because of unabated entry of smuggled vegetables from China.

Because of the drop in the wholesale buying prices of locally produced vegetables, farmers who harvested their crops suffered from huge losses to the extent of failing to recover their capital.
Officials of various farmers associations in the province said concerned national government agencies seem to be tolerating the smuggling of vegetables from China.

With the sudden drop in vegetable prices in the trading post here, the provincial government reactivated the local anti-smuggling task force to report to concerned government agencies, particularly the Department of Agriculture and Bureau of Customs prevalence of imported products in local markets.

Anti-smuggling advocates here said imported vegetables are sneaked into the country through the ports in Batangas, Cebu, Davao, and other small ports in the Visayas where some Customs officials allow the entry of the goods.

For the nth time this year, prices of locally grown vegetables have significantly dropped because of the continuous influx of imported crops that directly compete with the ones being produced in the vast agricultural farms in the different parts of the province.

Stakeholders in the P12-billion vegetable industry here challenged the Arroyo administration to be firm on its decision against the flooding of local markets with imported products.

At least 250,000 individuals from the 13 towns in Benguet rely on vegetable farming as a source of livelihood, thus, the drop in the prices of locally grown vegetables means they are deprived of descent living condition

Farmers are wondering why the government could not totally stop the smuggling of vegetables when there are several anti-smuggling task forces to check these illegal activities.