By Leiselle Maraj Thursday, September 2 2010

An increase in production of tomatoes has led to a decrease in the price but Education and Research Officer of the National Food Crop Farmers Association (NFCFA), Norris Deonarine warns of a hike in prices in the coming weeks due to a rise in demand.

Agriculture stakeholders in Trinidad noted there was a fluctuation in the prices of several different food crops because of the availability of the item.

“For the last two weeks we got an ease in the price of food but when school reopens and programmes such as School Feeding come back on-stream, their may be a readjustment in prices because there will be demand,”Deonarine said.

Average wholesale prices for food crops for last week were: Tomatoes between $4 and $6 per pound, cabbage between $4.50 and $5 a pound, the price for bodi went down to between $15 and $20 per five-lb bundle, pimentoes were $40 for 100, saim $8 per lb, cucumber between $100 and $120 for a 70-80 lb-bag, christophene $8 per lb, chive between $30 and $35 a bundle, celery $15 a bundle, chadon beni $10 a bundle, caraille $5 a lb, melongene $4 a lb, squash $3 a lb, pumpkin $1.50 a lb, sweet potato $600 for a 80 lb-bag due to scarcity, plantain $5 a pound, green fig $3 a lb, cassava $150 for a 80 lb-bag, ochroes $20 a lb, eddoes $300 for an 80 lb-bag, bhagi $5 a lb and sweet peppers between $8 and $10 a lb.

Using the example of tomatoes, Deonarine said the price was at $10 and $12 a pound for several weeks due to a shortage on the market but farmers were able to increase production which resulted in a cut back in the price.

“Farmers are resilient and always rise to the occasion with production. We have farmers in areas like Paramin and Tabaquite producing tomatoes so the price will fall. Demand is also low since it is the August holidays and people are spending their money more on books rather than food. However we see the price increasing when school resumes because of demand as well as the possibility of rain,” he said.

He said to boost supplies, vegetables are imported into the country. Deonarine said however, the NFCFA is against the importation of some of locally produced vegetables.

“There is no serious monitoring by the relevant ministries and importation is allowed to happen with people making a killing. We are not totally against importation because we operate in a free market economy but it needs to be monitored. If farmers are given necessary conditions, they can produce food for Trinidad and Tobago but infrastructure, irrigation and other factors remain backward so we will continue to face problems during the dry and rainy season,” he said.

Deonarine noted that the problem of inadequate food supply is affecting economies across the world but not enough is being done to address the problem locally.

President of the Agricultural Society Dhano Sookoo said it was time to think outside of the box and move away from traditional to more sustainable agriculture.

“This coming year we want to encourage government to develop an extensive programme in green house farming and incentives for this. We see it as the future of agriculture especially with the strange weather patterns we are encountering,” she said. Sookoo noted the drop in the price of tomatoes but she said crops coming out of Central Trinidad would be less because of the extent of flooding in the area. She added that soft crops such as cabbage and sweet peppers were not only affected by flooding but excessive rainfall.

Tobago Agriculture Society president Orwin Dillon said prices in Tobago will continue to rise as farmers recover from the impact of flooding in the months of June and July.

“The next couple of weeks and months we will continue to see prices rise. This is because of limited production in the market because of weather conditions. We came out of a harsh dry season and we began planting soon after but heavy rains between June and July resulted in the loss of crops,” he said.

Dillon quoted some retail prices from Tobago including: tomatoes at $25 a pound, sweet pepper at $18 per pound, ginger at $15 per pound, cauliflower $15 a pound, dasheen $12 a pound, sweet potato $12 a pound, melongene between $8 and $10 a pound, lettuce between $12 and $15 per head, squash at $8 a pound, cassava at $6 a pound, cabbage at $10 a pound and chive at $5 a bundle.

Dillon also recommended the use of green houses as the next step for agricultural production.

“It is a challenge in getting land prepared because of the level of flooding. We are waiting for moisture to decrease. As a result of this challenge in land preparation, we recommend government take serious steps to implement green houses in agriculture,” he said.