DA sees bumper harvest for upland vegetables

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) expects the supply of upland vegetables such as carrots and cabbage to overtake demand by nearly twice due to a bumper harvest seen this year.

DA director for high value crops program U-Nichols Manalo said production of upland vegetables is projected to reach 815,633 metric tons (MT) this year.

On the other hand, he said demand is seen to peak at 422,061 MT, giving the country a surplus of close to 394,000 MT of upland vegetables.

Upland vegetables include carrots, cabbage, white potato, petchay Baguio and habitchuelas.

“Our supply of vegetables, as shown in the data, is sufficient, especially the common ones that we buy in the market. Our projection this year is high,” Manalo said in a news briefing.

On the other hand, the Philippines is expected to produce 1.27 million MT of lowland vegetables, made up mainly of bitter gourd, eggplant, squash, tomato and beans, this year.

However, Manalo said demand is anticipated to reach 1.58 million MT that production of lowland vegetables would fall short by at least 312,000 MT.

Based on data from the DA, the Cordillera Administrative Region will provide 87 percent of the national harvest of upland vegetables at 713,463 MT, followed by Cagayan Valley and Northern Mindanao.

Lowland vegetables are seen to originate mostly from Southern Tagalog with 256,831 MT, Ilocos Region with 190,899 MT and Northern Mindanao with 150,837 MT. Cagayan Valley and Davao Region round up the top five producers of lowland vegetables this year.