Cabbage prices drop due to oversupply

Prices of highland vegetables such as cabbage have decreased, with some of the farmers opting to dispose of their stocks that are no longer accepted by markets due to an oversupply.

Latest data available from the Department of Agriculture (DA) indicate that cabbage prices ranged from P35.00 to P80.00 per kilogram as of January 11, lower than the P60.00 to P80.00 per kilogram range on December 11, 2023.

“May mga truck na ipinadala ang DA (Department of Agriculture) sa Benguet para at least ay maidala ang vegetables dito sa Metro Manila so magandang direksyon iyon, pero ang problema talaga ay marami talagang gulay ngayon,” Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) Chairperson Rosendo So said in a report on GMA’s “24 Oras Weekend” on Sunday.

(The DA sent out trucks to Benguet to bring the vegetables to Metro Manila, so that is a good option. But the problem is there are really a lot of vegetables now.)

Recently, cabbages delivered to La Trinidad, Benguet were rejected and were disposed of on a cliff in Tinoc, Ifugao.

“Wala pong bumibili at saka mababa ‘yung presyo kaya inuwi na lang namin,” Brent Orlando Pulano, a farmer, said in the same report.

(There were no buyers, and the price was low, so we just brought them home.)

The oversupply comes ahead of the anticipated El Niño phenomenon, which is expected to affect production later this year. The DA, for its part, in December said it had started implementing measures to mitigate the impact of the dry spell on food production. — Jon Viktor Cabuenas/DVM, GMA Integrated News