SABBATICAL NOTES. 19 APRIL 2014. N7. SABADO DE GLORIA. Romanticizing vegetable farming in Benguet. SO MUCH has been said and written about veggie farming in Benguet. In many of these accounts, there is that romance in tilling the soil, in coaxing the earth, in coaching these strawberries and cabbage and potatoes and carrots and horseradishes as if these simply sprout from the earth, and lo and behold, they bear fruit, with the harvesters merrily filling up their baskets. The truth of the matter is that this is not so. Among other things, there is cartel in the market for Benguet vegetables, otherwise popularly known as Baguio vegetables. Cartel is a market arrangement, usually among middlemen, and this arrangement assures the middlemen full control of the price of the produce as soon as this is procured from the farmers. In other words, the farmers do not benefit at all from this cartel. Who benefits, and who profits from this cartel are the middlemen and these are the Chinese-Filipino middlemen controlling the cartel from any place in Benguet to Divisoria and to other places where these veggies are distributed. There is the dictated farm-gate price, and that is set by the greedy characters of the cartel. Some can just say that there is a short supply of carrots in Divisoria and that is just right to up the price of that produce. The supply scenario can be manipulated: somebody can just hide the supply in a warehouse to create an artificial supply, and then the cartel can say to the consumers, There is no supply of carrots, and therefore, the price is like this now. The poor producer--and these are your Benguet farmers--do not benefit from this at all. Instead, they are at the mercy of these people, and they are at the mercy of financiers too who supply them with seeds, herbicides, and pesticides at an agreed upon interest rate. My informant says it is 10% per month, and that sums up to 4 months before harvest time. Ah, the wages of mindless and conscienceless capitalism. Ah, the wages of cartel-ized sin, even if today is Black Saturday. Is there a Sunday of Resurrection at all for our Benguet farmers who are feeding us? BENGUET/
Posted on: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 09:04:30 +0000
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