Vegetable prices may drop after CNY, say farmers

PETALING JAYA: The current high prices of vegetables grown in Cameron Highlands, which have doubled due to the high demand compounded by a 30% drop in production caused by the labour shortage and the rainy season, will likely come down after the Chinese New Year festivities next month.

Cameron Highlands Farming Operators association chairman Ng Tien Khuan said the drop in price also depended on the weather next month.

“Vegetables planted outdoors like cabbage and French beans die if they don’t get enough sunlight. Indoor vegetables like tomatoes and kailan survive but they grow much slower,” the Malay Mail quoted Ng as saying.

He said, however, production could increase if the weather improved as past experience has shown that the rainy spell usually lets up in late February.

“The demand for vegetables is also expected to drop slightly after the lunar new year celebration and that will result in prices going down,” he said.

“However, given the recent weather we’ve seen, it is hard to say how the weather will turn,” Ng was quoted as saying.

Apart from the bad weather, some 2,000 farms in Cameron Highlands face manpower shortage.

According to Cameron Highlands Agricultural Cooperative Association representative Wong Seng Yee, the shortage of farmhands affects productivity even more during the rainy season.

He said the biggest obstacle for the farmers was the one they could not control — the weather.

“When it rains, the pesticides wash off quickly, and they need to be replaced in order for the vegetables to grow,” he was quoted as saying.

He said with fewer farmhands, it was harder to replace the pesticides, thereby affecting the quality and quantity of vegetables produced.

Wong said if the weather improved, then production of vegetables would increase and prices could drop. -FMT