Porters, vendors and residents at the La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Post launched a prayer vigil on May 13 to denounce the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) importation of carrots.

The DA announced importing 1,000 metric tons of carrots in April, followed by 2,500 metric tons each for May and June, claiming this would address supply shortages and lower market prices.

Pansigeden Advocacy Cooperative’s (PAC) Betty Listino in an interview by the alternative newspaper Nordis said farmers continue to suffer from low farmgate prices, worsened by smuggling and uncontrolled imports. The DA keeps importing vegetables instead of strengthening local supply.

She shared that carrot retail prices in Metro Manila range from ₱80 to ₱190 per kilo while farmgate prices at the Benguet Agri-Pinoy Trading Center are ₱50–₱60 per kilo for large carrots and ₱10–₱25 per kilo for “lumpia-shaped” carrots.

Farmgate prices of other vegetables from the Benguet highlands have also fallen. Wonderball and Rareball cabbage were recorded on May 10 at only ₱3–₱7 per kilo while Chinese cabbage was ₱12–₱18 per kilo.

Vegetable farming has existed in the highlands for more than 75 years, yet it still lacks a dedicated national program and effective regulatory mechanism. The recurring issue of oversupply and price collapse at farmgates is a symptom of a deeper structural crisis exacerbated by decades of the government’s criminal neglect, Listino explained.

“Unlike rice and corn, there is no national program for highland vegetables. Consequently, government data on the long-standing issues we raise are lacking, and it fails to provide appropriate solutions,” she said.

Peasants, traders and local officials have repeatedly complained in recent years about the state’s continual importation of vegetables and its incompetence in curbing smuggling.

In another Nordis interview, Aliansi Dagiti Pesante iti Kordiliera (Apit Tako) said government efforts remain insufficient despite its purchase of 201,990 kilos of vegetables through KADIWA and engagement with markets beginning March 2. The agency delivered some 35,000 kilos of vegetables on May 9 from Buguis, Mankayan, Besao and Tinoc to Cubao.

DA secretary Francisco Tiu-Laurel and Ferdinand Marcos Jr visited the La Trinidad trading post in April, which residents and local officials called “purely performative.”

“Instead of finding ways to reduce production costs… to properly deliver and market Benguet’s carrot production, they still decided to import for so-called ‘calibration’ of supply,” Apit Tako said.

“The DA and the Marcos, Jr administration will essentially not solve gardeners’ problems until they create systemic change in the agricultural sector,” the group added.

The League of Associations of the La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Area, Pansigedan Advocacy Cooperative, and farmer groups and individuals including local officials and university volunteers issued a manifesto on May 12 filed at the office of Senator Kiko Pangilinan, calling to cancel the importation for April and July.