Fruits for New Year: Vendors say sales still slow but expected to pick up by Dec. 28

Carbon Public Market sellers say prices of fruits have gone up a bit

Here are some fruits that are displayed at the Carbon Public Market in Cebu City on Dec. 27, Wednesday. CDN Digital photo | Niña Mae Oliverio

CEBU CITY, Philippines — In welcoming the New Year, it has been part of the tradition to prepare 12 to 13 fruits for Media Noche.

CDN Digital visited and checked the situation at the Carbon Public Market in Cebu City on Dec. 27, just five days before the year 2024.

READ: Presyo Merkado: Current prices of food in Metro Cebu markets

According to the vendors here, the customers buying fruits for New Year’s eve are still few, but, they said, that they would be expecting an influx of customers starting tomorrow until December 31.

“Dili pa kaayo kusog. Mingaw pa,” Ellen Zapanta, 43, told CDN Digital.

(Sales is not yet strong. It is still not a busy time.)

Zapanta said that they would usually have more ‘last-minute-buyer’ customers.

READ: Fuel prices up by more than P1 in the last week of Dec. 2023

Victor Bihasa, 46, also had the same observation.

“[Mas daghan ang mamalit] kanang mga [December] 29 or 30. Karon gani’ng adlawa (December 27) mingaw pa gyud ron,” Bihasa said.

([There will be many buyers] when [December] 29 or 30. Today (December 27), there are still a few customers.)

Zapanta added that if they could not sell all of their fruits, they would donate it to the church so that the church could distribute them to the street children.

READ: Healthy holidays: DOST-FNRI’s gives nutritional guidelines amid festivities

Zapanta and Bihasa are among the vendors who observed the increase of prices of their items.

They could not tell the reason for the increase because their bosses were the ones who bought the fruits per box, but they believed that the rising number of prices should be expected due to inflation.

For example, last year, the Fuji Apple was sold at P10 each, now it is P15. In general, they observed that their products have increased by P5 up to P30 depending on the kind of fruits they were selling.

Prices of fruits

Here are the prices of some fruits at the Carbon Public Market that are usually prepared to welcome the New Year.

• Lansones – P120-P140
• Ponkan – P25/3pcs
• Orange – P100/3pcs
• Grapes – P200-P300/kilo
• Apple – P30-P35/each
• Mango – P130/kilo
• Kiat-kiat – P70-P80/pack
• Golden Melon – P200/3pcs
• Watermelon – P40/kilo
• Seedless watermelon – P60/kilo
• Kiwi – P40/each
• Pears – P25/each
• Chico – P100/kilo
• Melon – P100/kilo
• Pineapple (large) – P50/kilo
• Pineapple (small) – P100/3pcs
• Guava – P100/kilo

/dbs