A cabbage farmer in Dalaguete town, southern Cebu gives away free cabbage to passersby on Friday, January 5, 2024. This was because these were considered rejects by traders, who bought them and gave them away. | Contributed photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Vegetable traders from Dalaguete clarified that there was no oversupply of cabbage in the town.
Earlier, in a post of Yamah Requina, a truck loaded of cabbage were seen being given away to passersby.
READ: Cabbage ‘price drop’ in Dalaguete, Cebu shocks DA-7
Vegetable traders on free cabbage
Requina, in an interview, said that they were given away due to the drop of its price in the market and to avoid them from being spoiled.
However, he said that traders, who were seen in the video, communicated with him and explained the real scenario.
They said that they were given away because they did not pass their quality control.
READ: Gov’t intervenes on vegetable surplus in Dalaguete
Why they were rejects
“The fact nga nanghatag me sir dli na cya tungod sa ka barato dre. Kadto cya is reject to cya mga puti to. Dli modala ang mga byahedor specially mga motabok pa og dagat kay ig-abot ana sa lugar malata na,” vegetable traders said in a statement, which was forwarded by Requina.
(The fact that we gave them away, sir, did not mean that it was because the price was cheap. Those were rejects, the white ones. The buyers would not bring those especially since they had to cross the sea because when they reached their destination those vegetables would be spoiled.)
READ: 500 kilos of ‘surplus’ cabbage given away to coastal barangays in Dalaguete
Farmers paid before giving away produce
They said that they had already paid the vegetable farmers before they gave them away to the public.
“Ang kadto sir gibayran to namo as a help na lang pod sa mga farmers nga dli mausik ilang kahago ug naa silay ikabali. Mao na jud na amo ginabuhat everytime daghan nga mga reject. Among paliton ug among ipanghatag,” it added.
(Those, we paid for them as a help to the farmers so that their efforts would not be waster and they could have some money to roll. That is what we have been doing everytime that there are a lot of rejects. We buy them and we give them away.)
READ: Inflation cooled to 22-month low in Dec, thanks to cheaper veggies
DA-7 to verify report
They issued the clarification to avoid them from being blamed by other farmers and traders.
Regional Executive Director Angel Enriquez of the Department of Agriculture in Central Visayas earlier said that they were already verifying the report.