IN BALAMBAN town, Cebu province, livestock producers try to keep their animals warm from the cold spell sweeping the province. In the village of Gaas, a plastic sheet serves as this cow’s jacket. TONEE DESPOJO/CEBU DAILY NEWS
CEBU CITY—Prices of fish and vegetables in the city’s biggest public market have more than doubled as a result of declining supply because of the cold weather.
Fidel Orongan, fish and seafood vendor at the Carbon public market, said the supply of fish from Zamboanga City, General Santos City and Daanbantayan town in northern Cebu province had gone down because only a few fishermen had sailed to fish because of strong waves spawned by the northeast monsoon.
Because the supply was low, prices of fish in the market has doubled.
Prices of “tabangko” (great barracuda) and “sasa” (black-barred halfbeak) went up from P50 to P120 a kilogram.
Orongan said vendors were losing, as steep prices were driving buyers away.
Like fish, prices of vegetables also increased after supplies from Barangay Mantalungon in Dalaguete town, Cebu, went down, said vendor Aneza Cayme.
Mantalungon is considered the vegetable basket of Cebu.
Cayme said that since the cold weather started in early January, vendors got only half of the usual 20 baskets of cabbage from farms in Mantalungon.
Prices of cabbage are up from P12 to P35 a kg while pechay now costs P45 from P20 per kg.
Bert Castillo, chief of the Regional Crop Protection Center of the Department of Agriculture (DA), said his office had yet to check the condition of farms in Mantalungon.
Castillo said leafy vegetables were the worst hit by the cold spell, which causes the leaves to curl up.
He said, however, that vegetables were usually hit by fungus infection when it’s cold. The cold weather made vegetables and livestock more susceptible to fungus infection, he said.
Angel Enriquez, DA director for Central Visayas, said the department was willing to provide seedlings to farmers who had suffered losses as a result of the cold weather.