LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — Several groups of farmers here assailed the Bureau of Customs (BoC) and the Department of Agriculture (DA) for allegedly allowing the entry of over P16 million worth of imported vegetables from China into the country at a time when they are reeling from the effects of the onslaught of typhoon “Pepeng” that damaged multi-million worth of vegetables here.

Vegetable truckers, traders, and farmers joined forces in condemning the leniency of concerned government agencies that allowed unscrupulous and enterprising smugglers to bring into the country imported carrots and potatoes from China which resulted in the significant dive in the prices of locally-grown crops.

According to reports reaching the various farmers organizations here, the smuggled carrots and potatoes from China were shipped into the country and are now being widely sold in the Divisoria and Balintawak “bagsakan” centers while a huge volume of the imported vegetables were brought to Cebu without being confiscated by Customs inspectors.

From the usual P30 to P40 per kilo of carrots and P35 to P45 per kilo of carrots, wholesale prices of these locally-produced vegetables at the vegetable trading post here dropped by over 60 percent resulting in heavy losses on the part of the farmers who were forced to harvest their crops to prevent them from being heavily damaged by upcoming weather disturbances.