LA TRINIDAD, BENGUET? The volume of vegetables supplied at the trading post here has gone back to normal, but farmers and traders are getting wary over reports that imported vegetables have penetrated Metro Manila?s public markets.

Officials of the Benguet Truckers and Traders Association (BTTA) and the Benguet Farmers Federation Inc. (BFFI) have expressed alarm over the P16-million worth of smuggled carrots and potatoes from China that the Bureau of Customs (BoC) intercepted before the All Saints? Day break.

Traders said they also saw imported vegetables being sold in Manila?s Divisoria market.

Members of a task force monitoring supply in Metro Manila relayed the confiscation of the imported vegetables to local officials and farmers here. This report has worried traders and farmers as the seized goods, they said, could just be the start of large-scale importation timed for the Christmas holidays.

Loreto Buya-an, BFFI public relations officer, and Agusta Bananoy, BTTA executive secretary, said the importation of vegetables has been the trend whenever the holidays approach.
?The imports are cheaper than highland vegetables. But they should not be allowed to enter the country since local supply is always available,? Buya-an said.

The trading post here is the Cordillera?s biggest vegetable trading center. Traders haul close to three million kilograms of vegetables daily to Metro Manila, southern Luzon, the Visayas and other lowland provinces.

Members of the Farmers.Net, a group of businessmen and vegetable industry players, asked why the government seemed to relax its import restriction regulations on vegetables during the Christmas holidays.

Local officials also urged the Department of Agriculture to study the use of legal remedies provided by international trade agreements, like the anti-dumping law, to block unnecessary vegetable importation.