Vegetable traders see more losses with high fuel cost
FARM FRESH | A stall at Baguio City public market offers newly harvested vegetables from farms in Benguet province in this photo taken on Tuesday. Local farmers and traders are starting to worry about the impact of fuel price hikes on the agriculture industry. (ALLAN MACATUNO / Inquirer Northern Luzon)
BAGUIO CITY, Benguet, Philippines — The skyrocketing prices of fuel are also jacking up the production and transportation costs for vegetables, causing traders in Benguet province to worry about earning less while still reeling from the impact of the pandemic.
Agot Balanoy, the spokesperson for the League of Associations at La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Post, said local vegetable farmers and truckers were already struggling to compensate for their losses due to the increased cost of transport links for vegetables.
In an interview on Tuesday, Balanoy said prices of vegetables grown in the province, such as cabbage, lettuce, broccoli, and cauliflower, remained low due to a drop in demand.
“The effect of the pandemic is still being felt by all sectors, including the vegetable industry. The low prices of vegetables are due to the low demand,” Balanoy said.
She said farm-gate prices were mainly decided by the trend in supply and demand, and the rising prices of basic commodities, including fuel, were forcing people to spend less.
According to Balanoy, vegetable farmers have to carry the burden of high production costs, including rising prices of farm inputs, while keeping farm-gate prices low to be able to sell their harvest.
“But traders can increase their retail prices to cover the additional fuel expenses. So in this situation, it is the farmer and the consumer who bear the brunt of the [fuel] price hike,” Balanoy said.
Monitoring
According to the price monitoring of the Department of Agriculture in the Cordillera and the Benguet Agri-Pinoy Trading Center, the movement in the prices of highland vegetables remains in the same range since last year.
On Tuesday, cabbage was sold at a wholesale price of P12 to P13 a kilo, while carrots cost between P23 and P43 a kilo at La Trinidad trading post. These vegetables are being sold at Baguio City public market for as much as twice the farm-gate prices.
Rudy Bulawan, president of Benguet Vegetable Truckers and Traders Association, said they were also feeling the pinch, noting that a 10-wheel delivery truck consumes 200 liters of fuel roundtrip.
For the past 11 weeks, prices of fuel and other petroleum products have been increasing, with the biggest hike implemented on Tuesday.
Oil companies Caltex, Cleanfuel, Flying V, PTT Philippines, Petron, Seaoil and Shell said they were raising gasoline prices by P7.10 per liter and P13.15 per liter for diesel. Caltex, Flying V, Petron, Seaoil and Shell are also increasing kerosene prices by P10.50 per liter.
“We truckers can pass on our additional fuel costs to our buyers. But how about our poor farmers?” Bulawan said.
He said the low demand for vegetables had been worsened by the proliferation of smuggled farm products, adding that orders for vegetables dropped by 50 percent since the pandemic struck in 2020.
“With the continuing [fuel] price hike, even traders have to recalibrate their trips to survive,” Bulawan added.
Fishermen, too
In Zambales province, about 90 percent of its 15,000 registered boat operators have temporarily suspended their fishing trips due to the fuel price hike.
Fisherman Bobby Roldan said they could no longer afford the high diesel cost, which increased in a span of a month from P780 to P924 for an average of 12-liter consumption each fishing trip.
The government, he said, should immediately suspend the excise on fuel products and repeal the oil deregulation law that allows oil companies to set and control prices.
“We also demand a full fuel subsidy worth P15,000 for small [fishermen] who are among the hardest hit by the [fuel] price increase,” said Roldan, who is also the chair of the fisherfolk group Pamalakaya in Central Luzon.
Ernesto Ancho, 76, another fisherman from Zambales, said they used to spend P350 on diesel, but the soaring prices of petroleum products forced them to shell out P550 on fuel per fishing trip now.
“It’s now more difficult for us since we don’t get to catch fish that much and we’re spending more on diesel. There’s nothing left for us,” Ancho said.
—WITH A REPORT FROM JOANNA ROSE AGLIBOT
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