The Department of Agriculture (DA) has earmarked P600 million in 2027 to bankroll the construction of facilities in Benguet that will address the persistent problem of vegetable supply glut.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. told the BusinessMirror that the DA has allocated an initial amount of P600 million under its 2027 National Expenditures Program (NEP) to build a mega cold storage and vegetable processing facilities beside the Benguet Agri Pinoy Trading Center.
‘It’s one complex. Hopefully, it will be operational by 2028,’ the DA chief told this newspaper.
The recent successive typhoons and torrential downpours in Benguet resulted in Chinese cabbage and carrots being discarded along Labey-Lacamen Road in Tublay, Benguet.
For the DA chief, the availability of these facilities are crucial to address the problem of oversupply.
‘What happened in Benguet this year may also be called force majeure, with excessive rain hobbling the supply chain,’ he said. ‘Our long-term solution is mega cold storage and vegetable processing facilities.’
In the meantime, the DA has ramped up its efforts to prevent supply gluts that result in depressed prices, including the enhancement of its market early-warning system.
The initiative aims to solve the long-standing problem for vegetables, where seasonal harvest surges tend to overwhelm markets.
As such, the DA said persistent oversupply has forced farmers to dump unsold vegetables along waysides rather than shoulder transport costs, since these may not fetch enough to cover expenses.
Agriculture Assistant Secretary Genevieve Velicaria-Guevarra said the system would complement regional help desks by providing a clearer picture of what is happening on the ground.
‘We want to move from reacting to problems to anticipating them,’ Guevarra said. ‘The monitoring system will give us alerts on upcoming harvests, weather disturbances, and other developments that could affect the supply chain to help us trigger assistance earlier.’
She added that regular harvest projections would improve planning, while more transparent and timely farmgate price monitoring could help curb market abuses by middlemen.
The system would also trigger alerts for logistics and other assistance, which the DA said would allow the government to respond more quickly to emerging supply and market disruptions.