Late afternoon of Friday, January 23, a team dispatched by the Department of Agriculture (DA) went straight to the heart of Manila’s food trade, stepping into Divisoria to see firsthand how vegetables and other crops move, change hands, and gain value before reaching consumers.
The visit forms part of the intensified market monitoring ordered by Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr., aimed at keeping food supply stable and preventing unjustified price spikes.
Assistant Secretary Genevieve Velicaria-Guevarra of the Agribusiness Marketing and Assistance Service led the DA team that spoke directly with retailers, resellers, wholesalers, and market facilitators to gather valuable market information. The objective of the activity is to identifying where price adjustments occur and how costs accumulate along the supply chain.
On the ground, the team encountered traders from Nueva Ecija and several wholesalers, but it was the Manila Hawkers Office that clearly explained the flow of trade. Viajeros and hired laborers typically unload produce at designated areas where their contact buyers usually situated. Moreover, payment is made through cheque and digital transfers like GCash, PayMaya, bank transfer, among others based on prior agreements between wholesalers and the owners of the goods.
Price formation was laid out in concrete terms. A 10-kilo bag of ampalaya, for instance, is dropped off to wholesalers at around P850. The same can be sold to retailers at about P1,000 on a pick-up basis. Traders pointed out that margins are shaped by operating costs—daily roadside fees of P20 per square meter, an annual hawkers fee of P1,275, and porterage costs of P50 per four-bag load.
“Our engagement with the traders was very open and constructive,” Assistant Secretary Guevarra said. “They were not apprehensive at all and responded clearly to our questions. We saw a willingness on their part to explain how trading really happens on the ground, which is important as we strengthen market monitoring and work toward more transparent and fair pricing.”
The interaction suggests that tighter monitoring does not necessarily disrupt trade, but can instead surface practical realities that often get lost in policy discussions.
The DA will reassess the value chain and strengthen the distribution model to protect product freshness while keeping prices affordable for consumers.
While no formal report has been released, the Divisoria visit highlights a key takeaway for the DA: understanding everyday trading dynamics is essential to curbing unreasonable price increases, protecting consumers, and ensuring that efficiency rather than speculation drives food prices in urban markets. ### (By DA – OSEC Comms & photo by AFID)
