By Raymond Carl Dela Cruz | Philippine News Agency
The Department of Agriculture (DA) said it is eyeing to source both highland and lowland vegetables from Visayas and Mindanao after strong typhoons battered vegetable-producing regions in Luzon.
In an interview, DA Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said the DA-High Value Crops Development Program and the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) would finalize recommendations on alternative supply sources within the week to tame elevated retail prices of vegetables.
“These are extraordinary times: grabe iyong damage, historical[ly] na kakaiba itong mga nangyari, extraordinary circumstances,” he said.
De Mesa said there would be no problem in terms of logistics costs considering the cheaper level of vegetable prices in the Visayas and Mindanao.
He said there is also the possibility of vegetable importation once the assessment indicated the need to do so.
“The priority is to get the vegetables from other vegetable-producing areas and regions that would be enough to temper the prices, so hindi na kailangang mag-import. But if there’s a necessity to import, we will do it,” De Mesa said, citing target arrivals in early December.
The DA, earlier, expressed plans to open Kadiwa sites in areas hit by Super Typhoon Pepito (international name: Man-yi) to make cheaper food accessible to affected Filipinos.
According to the latest data of the DA-Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Operations Center, Severe Tropical Storm Kristine (Trami) and Typhoon Leon (Kong-rey) left around P1.23 billion worth of damage in high-value crops, equivalent to 46,016 metric tons (MT) volume of production loss; while Typhoon Nika (Toraji) and Super Typhoon Ofel (Usagi) left 5,946 MT volume of production loss amounting to P97.72 million.
These include losses in upland and lowland vegetables, spices, legumes, and fruits, among others.