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Oversupply has forced tomato farmers in Nueva Ecija to sell their produce for as low as P3/kilogram

The surge in supply came after hundreds of farmers in the town of Bongabon is currently harvesting their tomatoes from about 91 hectares of farm land.

Municipal agriculturist Jackielou Gallarde, of Bongabon, Nueva Ecija, explained that the oversupply was mostly cause by farmers tend to shift to planting a certain crop if they see good prices. If a farmer gets good profit on one harvest season, other farmers will be encouraged to plant the same crop.

“Syempre sabay sabay din harvest nila so may tendency talaga na magkaroon ng surplus at oversupply,” Gallarde said.

This is the same situation in other towns of Nueva Ecija and even the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya, Pangasinan, and Quezon. In the boundary of the towns of Rizal and Bongabon, some tomato plants were seen rotting.

Farmers say they just let them dry and rot since current farmgate prices cannot even cover the costs of transportation and labor.

Farmers are currently seeking help from the government and private sector through rescue buys at a good price. A tomato post-harvest processing facility in could help farmers turn their harvest into other products such as tomato sauce, paste, and ketchup. But there is no such facility in Nueva Ecija.

As tomatoes are highly-perishable, they cannot be stored in cold storage facilities.

“Ang ginagawa po natin ngayon, mina-market link with direct buyers, wholesalers kasi alam naman natin na medyo perishable ang kamatis kaya kailangan ma-dispose agad the soonest possible time or a large quantity,” said Asec. Genevieve Guevarra, head of Agribusiness and Consumer Affairs, Department of Agriculture

The DA said it has talked to certain restaurants and buyers as assistance to the farmers. But farmers are seeking a more permanent solution to the problem that seems to happen every harvest season.