Tomato farmgate price drops to P6 per kilo

MANILA, Philippines — A farmers’ group has reiterated its call for the Department of Agriculture (DA) to implement a floor price for tomatoes after the farmgate price of the produce again plummeted to P6 per kilo.

Jayson Cainglet, executive secretary of the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura, blamed the decline in the farmgate price of tomatoes on the peak harvest season.

Cainglet said the farmgate price of tomatoes in the past few days increased to P12 per kilo, but it went down again to P6 yesterday.

He said farmers in Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija and Nueva Vizcaya have been complaining about the low price of their produce.

“There was a delay in the harvest last year (because of the typhoons). Now, farmers have been harvesting (simultaneously) since February,” Cainglet said.

Despite the drop in the farmgate price of tomatoes, the retail price of the produce in Metro Manila still ranges from P25 to P60 per kilo.

Cainglet said the plan of the DA to construct more storage facilities to address oversupply of farm produce would not benefit tomatoes.

He said the proposed processing of tomatoes should be planned ahead as farmers need to undergo training.

Cainglet recommended that the government buys tomatoes from farmers and sell the commodity at Kadiwa centers.

He said a floor price for tomatoes is necessary to prevent farmers from incurring further losses.