EAT YOUR GREENS Some 3,000 people share portions of a giant salad prepared by vegetable farmers and traders in the Benguet capital of La Trinidad. —RICHARD BALONGLONG
LA TRINIDAD, BENGUET—Farmers and traders here tossed a giant salad consisting of more than 1,000 kilograms of lettuce, marble potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, sugar beets and bell peppers on Thursday as part of a campaign to promote local produce amid trade liberalization.
The salad was shared by 3,000 people at the vegetable trading post here. The huge dish weighed 1.3 tons and was prepared in a 32-foot long container, said Jonathan Micua, manager of the School of Knowledge and Development, who supervised the preparations.
The vegetables that made up the salad were worth P153,000, which farmer and trader organizations shouldered for the event, said Nora Ganase, president of the League of Associations at the La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Area Inc.
Ganase said they hoped the event would encourage more people to buy local vegetables instead of imported produce. “Imported vegetables may be bigger and may look better but Benguet vegetables are far better, juicier, crunchier and fresher than the imported ones,” she said.
According to her, imported vegetables could now freely enter the country with the full implementation of Asean Free Trade Agreement (Afta).
Two months ago, carrots from China flooded the market and affected farmers’ incomes, she said, adding that a big number of Benguet carrots ended up rotting due to poor sales.
She said farmers did not even bother harvesting or transporting their carrots because the buying price was too low. “They just allowed the carrots to rot in the gardens before replanting,” she said.
Imported vegetables are sold at a lower price because of the tax exemptions and other benefits importers enjoy from the Afta, Ganase said. —KIMBERLIE QUITASOL