Ifugao Farmers Are Making Tomato Jam To Recover From Losses Due To Oversupply
One farmer remarked that the product tastes like strawberry jam!
The extraordinary conditions brought forth by the COVID-19 pandemic has left many local industries struggling to stay afloat. Now more than ever, it's important to support local businesses. One sector hit particularly hard by the pandemic is our local farming industry. Due to nationwide restrictions on travel and transportation, farmers have struggled to sell their harvest and many provinces have been left with an oversupply of goods. One such province is Ifugao, where farmers are experiencing a surplus of tomatoes. As of July 1, According to the Benguet Agri-Pinoy Trading Center, the selling price for tomatoes ranges from P4 to P9. The Ifugao Highland Farmers' Forum has noted that the oversupply has led to millions in losses for farmers.
In order to prevent waste, maintain livelihood, and recover from these losses, Ifugao farmers are making tomato jam out of their excess harvest.Â
To help the farmers, Ifugao State University (IFSU) held a three-day training session for jam processing in mid-June to teach farmers and other community members how to make tomato jam.
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Jam is not only a popular food product (best known for its ube and coconut milk variations), it's also a way of preserving fruits, thus ideal for keeping fruit supply from going to waste. In the three-day session held by the IFSU, participants were able to produce 136 bottles of jam (250 mL per bottle), which were sold for P100 each.
Proceeds from this sale were sold to help Ifugao farmers recover from their losses. The participants later conducted training in their own barangays based on what they learned from the workshop. Volunteers within the community were able to produce an additional 400 bottles after to help the farmers.Â
In order to boost morale and help convince local farmers to produce the jam, the IFSU processed and handed out ready-made jam to farmers for free. "Masarap! Parang strawberry jam! (Delicious! It's like strawberry jam)," commented one farmer, according to Ifugao Highland Farmers Forum.
For tomato jam orders, you can contact (0905) 598-5829 or (0926-319-8137). All earnings will be given to the famers Tinoc, Ifugao in exchange for their supply of tomatoes.
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