MANILA -- Tomato farmers in Nueva Ecija once again face losses as oversupply has led farmgate prices drop to as low as P3 per kilo.

In the town of Bongabon, more than a hundred farmers are currently harvesting tomatoes from around 91 hectares leading to a surge in supply of the vegetable.

Amelia Camania, a tomato farmer, said she had to invest around P100,000 to plant tomatoes in more than half a hectare of land. She has to sell her harvest at the price of at least P10 per kilo just to break even. But farmgate prices dropped to as low as P3 per kilo, which has threatened her chances of earning a bit for her family.

"Gustuhin man namin ibenta ng mataas, wala kaming magagawa kundi ibenta ng mura (Even if we want to sell them at fair prices, we can't really do anything)," Camania added.

Meanwhile, the Municipal Agriculture Office of Bongabon offered an explanation on the oversupply. Municipal Agriculturist Jackielou Gallarde said most 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," said Jackielou Gallarde, the municipal agriculturist of Bongabon, Nueva Ecija.

(This means they will harvest simultaneously, causing a surplus and oversupply.)

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.

Erdie Santiago, another tomato farmer, said he is bound to lose as much as P400,000 of his investment due to low prices.

"Mentras malaki ang patanim malaki ang lugi dahil ngayon lang nangyari samin na ganitong petsa, hindi na halos mabili kamatis," he added.

(If you have larger lands, your losses would be even bigger. This is the first time that we find it difficult to sell our tomatoes.)

CALL FOR HELP

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

(What we are doing now is to link then to markets, both direct buyers and wholesalers since these are easily perishable and need to be sold immediately at large quantities.)

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.