The Department of Agriculture (DA) announced on Wednesday that tomato prices in the local markets are expected to drop this week as some farmers have finished with their harvests.

Tomatoes are currently selling for P140 to 220 per kilo while their prevailing price is P180, according to DA spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa.

“This is P20 higher than last week’s P160. Last month it was P80,” he said.

“The good news here, again, as I mentioned, is that the southern Tagalog region has started harvesting now, and we can expect the price of tomatoes to gradually decrease in the coming days,” he added.

Slim price increases

Meanwhile, De Mesa said the prices of some lowland vegetables had recorded a slight increase.

“If [prices] increase, it’s only slim; there’s almost no [change],” he said, citing as an example pechay Tagalog’s current price of P80, which was P150 last month, and bittergourd’s (ampalaya) current price of P120 from last month’s P140.