THE Department of Agriculture (DA) yesterday said it is speaking with traders and other potential institutional buyers to encourage them to get native garlic from local Filipino farmers.
This comes after farmers in Batanes and Occidental Mindoro expressed concerns about the oversupply of garlic in their areas, despite them already being sold at cheap prices.
“We will encourage mobile biyaheros and more traders to buy from our farmers from the region and sell here in Metro Manila,” said Undersecretary Kristine Evangelista.
The official noted that the department already buys garlic from farmers and sells them at affordable prices under their Kadiwa program.
“Now if we can influence our traders to also sell it in supermarkets, in palengkes (wet markets), then our consumers will have access to native garlic,” she said.
“By doing so, then we can encourage our farmers to keep planting,” she added.
Evangelista said they have spoken with some restaurants on their possible purchase of native garlic for their food offerings.
“We’ve had some gains because we’ve spoken with some restaurants owners and even chefs and they said that our native garlic is actually a very good quality.”
“So that’s the direction we’re taking as far as consumer affairs is concerned,” she said. (ABS-CBN News)
