4 MIN READ

By KIMBERLIE QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — Flooding along the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) delayed Benguet vegetable deliveries to Manila by up to 12 hours on Sept. 1, causing traders to miss key market windows and adding transport losses to prolonged rains, crop damage, depressed prices and importation.

Some traders failed to sell their vegetables to buyers from Mindoro and Bicol who had already left Divisoria, said Lorna Menzi, adviser of the League of Associations at the La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Area Inc. (LALTVTAI). Most of the unsold loads were cabbages.

“The continuous rains already hasten spoilage of vegetables. Getting stuck for hours on the road worsens risk of spoilage,” Menzi said in an online interview.

The disruption came weeks after a glut at the La Trinidad trading area forced farmers to dump unsold cabbages and carrots because of low prices.

Menzi said there were no cabbages stocked at the trading post when she checked on Sept. 2. Cabbage was selling for at least P70 a kilogram.

But despite the higher prices, farmers and traders now face another problem: getting their produce to market before it spoils.

Racing against time

Rudy Bulawan, president of the Benguet Truckers and Traders Association, said the usual five- to seven-hour trip from the La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Post to Divisoria stretched to 10 to 12 hours on Sept. 1 because of flooding along NLEX.

Trucks were stalled in San Simon, Pampanga, and later in Balintawak. Ten-wheeler trucks could pass through floodwaters roughly as high as their wheels, but stranded smaller vehicles blocked their path, Bulawan said.

“If NLEX management really cares about motorists, it should have put up warning signs well before the flooded area. It seems they are more concerned about collecting toll fees than making sure motorists do not get stranded in the flood,” he said.

Bulawan said NLEX management should also have deployed personnel to guide motorists and manage traffic around the flooded section.

The flooding caused Benguet trucks to miss the 5 to 6 p.m. selling window in Divisoria. By the time they arrived, many buyers had left. The delays also caused truckers to miss the 5 to 7 a.m. buying window in La Trinidad.

“You have to be on time to get the best quality. If you are late, you get the leftovers. In the same way, you have to be on time in Divisoria so you can sell your vegetables,” Bulawan said.

Benguet vegetables are generally not preordered and are sold on a first-come, first-served basis, Bulawan said. A 10-wheeler can carry about 20,000 kilograms of assorted vegetables. Some vegetables can spoil within 24 hours.

Fewer trucks head to Manila

Only around 15 of the usual 25 trucks departed for Divisoria on Sept. 2 as orders declined, Bulawan said. Truckers combined orders to reduce fuel expenses.

The volume reaching the La Trinidad trading post has also declined as landslides along major Benguet roads and continuing monsoon rains make it harder to bring produce down from farms, Bulawan said.

Menzi said more than a month of monsoon rains had damaged crops, compounding farmers’ losses.

The provincial agriculture office reported P476.78 million in agricultural damage in Benguet as of Aug. 17 following Severe Tropical Storm Luis, Typhoon Maymay and the southwest monsoon. The damage affected 6,221 farmers.

Higher costs, greater risks

The longer trip to Manila also raised operating costs for truckers.

Bulawan said a 10-wheeler normally consumes around 180 to 200 liters of fuel for the usual trip to Divisoria and back to Benguet. He could not yet estimate the additional fuel used during the 10- to 12-hour one-way journey on Sept. 1.

He said motorists stranded along NLEX also had difficulty finding food and drinking water because there were no stores or restaurants along the affected stretch.

For Bulawan, who began hauling vegetables in 1993, the disruption was unprecedented.

“In my years of delivering vegetables, I started in 1993, this has been the worst setback, but this is the only livelihood we have so we have no choice,” he said.

“If we do not deliver, the retailers will have nothing to sell, the consumers will have nothing to buy. And we all go hungry,” Bulawan said.

‘Not just dole-outs’

Asked what assistance he wanted from the government, Bulawan said he had stopped relying on government aid, which he described as inadequate.

“I have stopped relying on the government for assistance. In our experience, the dole-outs the government gives are actually quite insulting,” he said.

Instead, he called for properly implemented flood-control projects that could keep major transport routes open during heavy rains.

“If only funds for flood control were spent on actual and working flood-control projects, then we would not be stuck in floods now,” Bulawan said.#nordis.net