DA to launch x-mas night fruit market

QUEZON CITY - Starting Dec. 1, the Department of Agriculture compound and its frontage in the Elliptical Circle in Quezon City will host fruit farmers who would like to sell their products directly to consumers.The Christmas Night Fruit Market is the DA's response to the complaint of fruit farmers that middlemen and traders are squeezing them to sell at very low prices because of alleged over supply.Lacatan banana producers, for example, say that from a high of P27 per kilo, buyers are now offering only P15. sand//scontent.fmnl4-5.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/15073362_1170351643047303_6222385047407508290_n.jpg?oh=c82f8603453ee7cbe92b33329a10885candampoe=58C8B961 Since the banana farmers depend on their engagements with traders and middlemen to sell their products, they are literally helpless now.Pomelo farmers from Mindanao are also angry because their produce which used to fetch up to P50 per kilo is now being bought only for P15.The traders are reportedly saying that there is an oversupply of fruits, a reason which I do not buy because I know for a fact that bananas from Mindanao are sold for as high as P75 per kilo in Baler, Aurora.This is plain and simple price manipulation. sand//scontent.fmnl4-5.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/15032259_1170351403047327_8475198749193603761_n.jpg?oh=51607dc2d10ca7c4d274f1e175cb77acandampoe=58B4F473 Personally, I am offended by this brazen exploitation of our farmers who produce highly perishable products.Last week, when I learned of the slump in the prices of fruits, I directed officials of the Dept. of Agriculture to ask the permission of the Quezon City government so that our fruit farmers could use the frontage of the DA Compound to display their fruits at night.Other offices under the DA which are located in the Elliptical Circle could also offer their areas for the Christmas Night Fruit Market. The spaces will only be available for the real farmers. No traders or middlemen will be allowed to use the spaces.I hope that this project will send a clear message to the traders and middlemen dealing with agriculture products that the Dept. of Agriculture will do everything it could to protect the interests of the small farmers.Any attempt to exploit the farmers by manipulating the prices will be met by the Dept. of Agriculture with innovative ideas such as the Christmas Night Fruit Market. The Dept. of Agriculture is also pursuing its project to establish the Farmers Trading Centers in Bulacan, for farmers coming from the North, and another facility in Taguig for the farmers coming from the South.While I believe that traders and middlemen play an important role in the trading and commerce of agricultural products as they have been since Bibilical times, I cannot allow them to be so powerful that they literally have in their grips the poor farmers who work under the sun to be able to feed his family and send his children to school. sand//scontent.fmnl4-5.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/15135855_1170353613047106_1729603393761449946_n.jpg?oh=49df1eb3ff6e7d56fe4c517e5e674ed0andampoe=58B6E4D4