The Department of Agriculture (DA) said it will allow vendors to sell fruits in the “Christmas night fruit market” in its Quezon City compound starting December 1.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said the night market will help boost the income of legitimate fruit farmers who have to contend with lower fruit prices.
“[The night market] was the department’s innovative response to fruit farmers’ complaint that middlemen and traders are squeezing them dry by selling at very low prices due purportedly to oversupply,” Piñol said in a statement.
Citing lacatan banana producers, Piñol said that from a high of P27 per kilogram, buyers are now offering only P15 per kg. “Since banana farmers depend on their engagements with traders and middlemen to sell their products, they are literally helpless now.”
He said bananas from Mindanao are sold for as high as P75 per kg in Baler, Aurora, which negates claims made by traders that there is an oversupply of fruits.
Piñol added that farmers from Mindanao could only fetch P15 per kg for their produce, significantly lower than the P50 per kg they used to get.
“This is plain and simple price manipulation. Personally, I am offended by this brazen exploitation of our farmers who produce highly perishable products,” he said.
Piñol said he has directed DA officials to ask the permission of the Quezon City government so that farmers could use the frontage of the department’s compound in Elliptical Circle.
Piñol said other offices under the DA could also offer their areas for the night fruit market.
“Only real fruit farmers would be allowed in the night fruit market to send a clear message to the traders and middlemen dealing with agriculture products that the DA will do everything it could to protect the interests of small farmers,” he added.
Filipino consumers usually increase their purchase and consumption of fruits during the holidays. To bring luck in the New Year, households buy and serve 12 round-shaped fruits during the Media Noche.