The institutional market bared quality, assured supply and price as their top three purchase considerations. How can local farmers meet these? Here, a leading researcher, economist and vegetable buyer share their views.

By Jerry James M. de la Torre


Quality Focus

Quality can spell the doom or boom of the local vegetable industry.

High quality produce may mean additional costs and changes in some practices on the part of the farmer but it could also mean higher selling price and consequently higher income. For Mindanao farmers for instance, they realized that the benefits are much greater than the costs. Low quality yield can only settle for a low price at the wet market but the unfavorable price fluctuation and stiff competition both from legal imports and smuggled products pose a very serious threat in decimating the local vegetable sector.

The institutional market demands high quality products and it is willing to pay the price. In fact, price comes only next after quality and assurance of supply in their purchase considerations. Without good quality produce from the local market, importation becomes a viable option. To capture the institutional market, local farmers should therefore aim for quality produce and bigger quantity targets on a regular basis.
Several benefits from quality improvement are seen as a strategic take-off point to hurdle a bunch of problems facing the local farmers because these can bring in greater revenues that could be partly used to finance the required interventions. The high-end market measures quality in terms of color, texture, flavor, size, weight, temperature, shelf life and yield. With proper postharvest handling, vegetables could last until three weeks as compared to only 3-5 days shelf-life in the wet market.