Vegetables do a disappearing act
THE CURSE OF LANDO
DAYS after Typhoon ‘Lando’ exited, Pangasinenses woke up to see vegetables a vanishing commodity in public markets in Pangasinan towns and cities.
And if market shoppers are lucky enough to find a few, these are no longer fresh and sold at more than 50 percent than their usual price level before Lando made its appearance.
This was confirmed by the findings of the Department of Agriculture (DA) that vegetables, including the high value crops, in Region 1 as well as in adjacent regions III, Cordilleras and Region II suffered the worst beating from Lando.
DA Regional Director Valentin Perdido said that the last typhoon destroyed the “pinakbet” vegetables of which Pangasinan was the top producer in Region 1 and it will take, he added, three months more before these may reemerge in the markets if farmers started planting after “Lando”.
Consider the vegetables needed to make pinakbet: eggplants that used to sell P40 to P50 per kilo before the typhoon is now sold at P120 per kilo; tomatoes from P40 to P80 per kilo. Worse, ampalaya, squash, string beans, green pepper and sweet potatoes are no longer readily available.
At the same time leaves of pechay are now sold at P60 per bundle when it was P10 to P20 per bundle before while cabbage is now sold at P50 per head from P20.
A housewife from Manaoag said the prohibitive cost of vegetables has forced her to temporarily stop buying vegetables and settle for serving mainly pork, chicken, beef and fish which are still plentiful and whose prices remained unchanged, to her family.
“For nilagang manok, chicken, I just put a sprinkling of moringa (malungay) leaves instead of slices of green papaya or leaves of pepper which are now hard to find,” the housewife said.
Of course, that may not sound like a bad idea to kids who hate vegetables. (Leonardo Micua)
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