“DAW indi Christmas.”
This is one of the many complaints from market vendors all over Iloilo City.
Despite the holidays, fish, meat and vegetable vendors report a low demand from consumers, while foot traffic through the market has been unremarkable during the past few days.
“Daw Augusto lang. Daw indi Christmas,” a fish vendor complained.
The positive side on this lack of demand is the stable prices, as low consumption drives many prices of food to remain stable.
“Ang bombay man lang ang nag-mahal gid,” Sweat Telogo, a vegetable vendor at Super Public Market, said. “Ang iban daw okay man lang. Steady man. Ang Bombay man lang ang nag–saka.”
However, Telogo also wants to add that like many other vendors, she’s not getting a lot of buyers. “Daw laka gani subong; daw lain sang nag-ligad ya. Daw indi gani Christmas. Daw ordinary lang nga inadlaw.”
Meanwhile, Lapaz Public Market president Charlie Chan has a more nuanced take on the situation. He said consumers’ low demand is dragged by various reasons.
“Diri subong sa December, na notice namon baboy kag karne, labi na gid ang baboy, presyo nag–sarurot. Nag dalagan ila presyo sa 180, 170,” Chan said, noting the low cost of pork due to the swine flu epidemic sweeping Asia. “Tungod sina ang buying public daw nahadlok.”
On the other hand, Chan reports that chicken and poultry prices have gone up recently, because people are using them as substitutes for pork. “Regarding sa manok, ga–saka nga ga–saka. Kada semana ga saka mga tatlo ka pesos, apat ka pesos,” Chan said. “Kag ang beef steady; wala ga saka. Baboy man. Pero ang isda grabe saka.”
Finally, Chan also shared many of the concerns and woes of the Ilonggo market vendors – low demand from consumers. “Ini nga December ka–hina; ka–hinay. Makita mo man sa sagwa. Ang supply wala ga–hulag,” Chan said.
Despite the gloomy sentiments among Iloilo markets, some vendors are optimistic. They believe that consumers will flock to the markets on Dec. 23 and 24, when Christmas Eve is imminent./PN
