Oh my gosh, I feel like a millionaire now.
A dear family friend, who came from Baguio for a conference for a week, came to my house last night surprising me with a huge volume of vegetables, that I can’t believe I can ever get hold of again in my life.
So many from Manila attended the said conference and mind you they all got back to Manila yesterday bringing loads of veggies from Baguio—of course they came from Benguet and other neighboring provinces in the Cordilleras—which were all priced at, believe me, 200 or more times less than what they are sold for here.
I am now free from worries about not having garlic at P100 per kg; bell pepper at P40 to P70 a kilo; squash at P135 (for a whole big piece which I think is more than 1 kilo); sayote at P20 a kilo (when I just recently bought at my neighboring grocery for P120); ginger, carrots and many more.Of course, some veggie I had to store in the ref but the others I left at my screened pantry.
It got me to thinking just how ruthless and shrewd those traders—viajeros—are and perhaps even market vendors who overprice these items to the detriment of us lowly consumers.
Our friend who could not believe her ears, kept asking the vendors in Baguio with disbelief how much those items cost and the vendors, a bit irritated with the repetitiousness, asked her taga saan ba kayo, to which she answered taga Manila.
The vendors amusedly sold to her and her several companions, and God knows even the hundreds others who attended the conference, who might have rushed to the public market to buy those golden veggies.
In an era of free market, would it be possible for the government, say the Department of Agriculture (and I hope they don’t bungle their work this time) to enforce price regulation – I am not suggesting price ceilings but to regulate the greed of Manila traders by setting a suggested retail price for all types of vegetables.
Actually, there is no shortage, as I have always believed. There is just price manipulation, hoarding and market malpractices by many unscrupulous traders and middlemen to the point of choking us consumers alive with such exorbitant prices.
For the longest time—or maybe since August last year—I was scrimping on my use of garlic, onions, tomatoes, ginger and other cooking ingredients, especially on my favorite veggies (carrots, potatoes, cabbage, local and Chinese pechay, and squash) because whenever I go to the groceries I could not help but shirk at the prices of veggies sold here.
I have always hated and shunned the idea of importing these things because I know the supplies of vegetables are not wanting in our country—what is wanting is government to step in and force the retailers, vendors and viajeros to temper their greed for profit and think of their fellowmen in the practice of their trade.
But it seems that the government always opts for the easy way out, by importing, even when supplies are not lacking. The reason for this is someone is in the take for every item bring shipped into the country. We are being milked dry by such importation (our foreign exchange gets spent, our farmers are screwed because their market for their produce is being crowded by these cheap importations, and who knows how much tariff and taxes are paid to the government, if such items are smuggled into the country).
And yet, the Bureau of Customs is squeezing and shaming those flight attendants of Philippine Airlines who bought onions, fruits and other vegetables abroad where they are cheaper and divided among the 10 of them. The BoC thinks that they are smuggling these things. Why not go after the big fish out there. They are the ones being protected by politicians and perhaps even the BoC people themselves.
Come on DA, why not hire trucks from the Philippine Army—what are they doing in Manila anyway, when there is no insurgency here—buy those veggies from Baguio and other production areas and bring them to the public markets and Kadiwa stores so many more can avail of cheaper veggies.
This way, the DA is helping the farmers (even just at the marketing end because DA does not involve itself much with farming since the devolution) by buying directly from them and bringing down those pricey veggies to Metro Manila so consumers here can enjoy local produce, instead of making the foreign farmers richer.