BONGAO, Tawi-Tawi—When the price of garlic hit nearly P170 per kilogram here, traders were worried and consumers were furious.
Even when prices hovered between P110-P130 per kilogram, the complaints did not stop.
“It’s now expensive here,” said Mudz Idjiran, who has been selling garlic for 20 years now.
Consumers in the province are used to cheap spices, garlic included, but the lack of supply is driving prices up in recent days.
Idjiran said that last month, he could still buy an 18-kg sack of garlic from neighboring Sabah for just over P2,000. The price shot up to about P3,000 per sack.
He said he suspected that the increase in prices was due to a spike in the demand for garlic from Sabah as a result of a decline in supply in many parts of the Philippines.
“Garlic is so expensive in other areas,” Idjiran said, citing the nearly P300 per kilogram price of garlic in Metro Manila.
The same is true in Zamboanga City where a kilogram of garlic costs from P280 to P300.
Idjiran, however, said he was unaware if traders here were taking advantage of the situation by shipping their garlic to areas where costs were high.
Gov. Nurbert Sahali said doing business with Sabah was the main reason prices of garlic here were way lower than in other areas.
The province gets not only garlic from Sabah but also sugar, and even fuel. Sabah is about two hours by boat from here.
“Goods are much cheaper if we get it from Sabah than from Zamboanga,” Bongao Mayor Jasper Que said.
Que said the reasons prices rarely move up here were the absence of a trade cartel and that businessmen were not restive.
“For as long as our local businessmen are not in panic mode, prices will remain affordable,” he said.
The militant group Anakbayan said the lack of government support for local garlic farmers was to blame for the high prices.
This lack of support has resulted in the shrinking of garlic-producing lands from 7,000 hectares in 1994 to just 2,500 ha today, said Vencer Crisostomo, Anakbayan chair, in an e-mailed statement.
Crisostomo said the garlic industry in the Philippines was on the verge of collapse because of the government’s importation policy.
“It is clear that this government does not care for farmers,” he said. Julie Alipala, with a report from Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao