Tags: Agribusiness, Cottage Industries, Wholesale and Retail
By KC Santos
LA TRINIDAD, BENGUET – Aside from the Panagbenga festival, another good reason to visit Baguio City this time of the year is to take advantage of the strawberry season at nearby La Trinidad.
For decades now, the Strawberry Farms serves as both a tourist attraction and center of livelihood for locals. Now is also a good time to visit the farms and pick strawberries yourself.
Be prepared, however, to pay 300 a kilo if you prefer to pick ripe strawberries yourself as opposed to buying it P50 a kilo from vendors. Locals charge you extra since ripe strawberries can be delicate and easily damaged if picked the wrong way.
Despite seeing baskets teeming with ripe strawberries, vendors like Nancy Pinmiliw says this season’s harvest is not as abundant as in previous years, thanks to recent typhoons and irregular weather patterns.
“The constant rains made the fruit very fragile so they easily perish. If you notice, the farms are dull green in color so that makes it less enticing for people. That’s bad news for everyone who depends on quality harvest,” says Nancy, who has been selling strawberries for more than four years now.
Planting at the strawberry farms starts during September when the weather is moderately cold. It takes two to three months for these to bear fruit.
Regardless of how farmers tend to rows of strawberries, Nancy says the weather dictates the amount of harvest and consequently, the price per kilo.
“We are really forced to sell the strawberries at a more expensive rate to maximize the amount of strawberries we have,” she says, admitting the selling price per kilo now is higher than last year.
Due to the abrupt changes in weather patterns, Nancy says they have to exert additional effort by selling strawberries all day and process the excess fruits at night into homemade jams.
Others have also learned to make the most of the abundant supply by making strawberry taho and ice cream.
Despite a less than desired harvest, most of the vendors I talked to here say they try to make the most out of it by creating opportunities to earn.
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