A recent influx of cheap Chinese vegetable imports in the Philippines is damaging local farmer livelihoods, according to a report in the Manila Bulletin online.

Farmers groups in the Philippines Benguet province said they were incurring heavy losses due to produce imports from China flooding the local market since last month.

Officers of the Benguet Farmers Federation reported that market traders in Metro Manila, Cagayan de Oro, Iloilo, Boracay, and other urban areas in Visayas and Mindanao were buying cheaper imported vegetables instead of locally-grown crops. Many traders had reduced the volume of their local purchases by at least 50 per cent, the group said.

Locally-grown carrots and potatoes are the worst affected items, according to the Bulletin.

In Mindanao, Chinese carrots were this week being sold at P40-P42 per kilo, while locally-grown carrots were fetching P50-P55 per kilo.

The Benguet Federation said local farmers faced a bleak Christmas, and blamed unregulated imports for the beleaguered state of the local agriculture industry, which is major source of livelihood for at least 250,000 people.

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