Baguio Cabbage – The Market Must Come First Before Supply

My Story Begins where the Rappler Story Ends.

Benguet farmers have been reeling from low vegetable prices since January. The situation was worsened by lockdowns imposed amid the pandemic, giving rise to various initiatives to help the farmers.

That is Cordilleran journalist Frank Cimatu writing 22 August 2020 from Baguio City via Rappler.com– “New Marketing Strategy Needed? Cabbage Farmers In Benguet Reel From Low Prices[1].”

Mr Cimatu – When you already have the supply, it is too late to think of a marketing strategy! (image from pressfarm[2]).

“Low vegetable prices since January” – and it is now 8 months since. Cabbage can be grown from 3-4 months; that means that many more Benguet or nearby farmers planted much more cabbage seeds since January in the hope that they will benefit from the good prices from the cabbage heads that will form. The farmers were thinking plain and simple Grade School Arithmetic.

“Benguet farmers have been forced to sell their cabbage for as low as P3 per kilo because of a glut in supply.” Everyone had been thinking of the continuing demand and forgotten the supply that keeps adding and keeps driving out the demand. Farming is more than addition and subtraction.

If you have a bad business sense, that is what happens to your cabbage farming! It’s not the market that is bad – it’s the production!

(University of the Philippines’ College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños – today, if late, why don’t UPLB professors teach supply & demand to farmers via webinars? Time and opportunities are no longer valid excuses for failing to do so.)

“New Marketing Strategy Needed?” asks Mr Cimatu. Too late the hero but yes.

And I see it right there, in the report of Mr Cimatu, although nobody at the Department of Agriculture, DA, has taken official action on it. Mr Cimatu suggests:

Marketing as “superfood”? Maybe the DA could change its tack and market cabbage by highlighting its health benefits amid personal safety concerns raised by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Cabbage as anti-covid.”
Yes, Mr Cimatu, I agree 100%!

Mr Cimatu says that in July, “European researchers made it to the headlines by comparing the coronavirus death rates and vegetable consumption preferences of European countries.”

According to the European study, cabbage and cucumber “reached statistical significance with the Covid-19 death rate per country.” In other words, the results were reliable:

For each g/day increase in consumption of head cabbage, the mortality risk for Covid-19 decreases by 13.6%. For each g/day increase in consumption of cucumber, the mortality risk decreases by 15.7%.

Father, Mother, eat your cabbage, your cucumber –
vegetables are good for you!

“Cabbage is known to be rich in Vitamin C, fiber, folate, potassium, magnesium, vitamins A and K. It also has antioxidants that help reduce inflammation.”

If they don’t want to be losers, in Benguet or anywhere else, marketing strategists should study their markets thoroughly and completely before telling farmers to produce something from their farms. In this case, the local government units should be able to help their constituents.@517

 

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[1]https://rappler.com/business/new-marketing-strategy-help-benguet-farmers-low-cabbage-price?
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[2]https://press.farm/most-effective-digital-marketing-strategies-for-startups/