The market for processed fruit and vegetables is growing due to covid-19. Aside from planting vegetables and root crops, people at home are stockpiling processed food.

Stockpiling canned and frozen fruits and vegetables is part of the new normal now. It has greatly affected consumer’s buying behavior The fear of scarcity prompted people to start buying processed food. Such new behavior in buying has positively affected the demand for processed goods, canned fruit and vegetables.

In episode 24 of our ‘AgriStoryahay sa ATI’ webinar series, food technologist Phoebe L. Galeon shared and showed us that when a vegetable is in season and in abundance, processing is a logical step to make such farm goods commercially viable.

When vegetables are at farm gate price and readily accessible, they are expected to be affordable. A surplus of it sometimes spells disaster for our farmer friends since some of them cannot keep up marketing and selling which a lot of their goods would end up as waste.

One of the ATI’s guiding mantra is extension delivery beyond boundaries. Before the pandemic happened, this is easier said than done. There is always a question of turfing or even the limitations and legal ramifications imposed when you literally go beyond your Physical Boundaries. Of course, boundaries could be interpreted not only in the Physical sense as everything is open to interpretation, and for the Commission on Audit, justification.

Since the pandemic prompted everyone to stay at home, most of the popular restaurants and those in the food business have resorted to takeout or online selling. In these dire times, keeping one’s business afloat above troubled waters in the midst of pandemic and not finding ways and means to generate the cash flow would most likely cause the business to cease. Businesses that are commodity-based, that needs physical contact, and relies on heavy foot traffic will need to make major changes to adapt or else they will eventually fold.

When I was in my junior year in college, my professor asked us to submit a some-sort-of-canned output for our final presentation in our Radio and TV class. With scarce resources where gadgets and home-studios were once a luxury (especially in the ’90s), we end up recording our canned project to government-owned studios, careful not to overuse nor damage the reel-to-reel audiotape for we were allowed to record using their equipment for free.

ATI Compound, EL SALVADOR CITY---Spectacular episodes await viewers this month of September as topics on Beekeeping, Honey Processing, Meat Processing and Ham Making and Fish Processing are slated for “AgriStoryahay sa ATI” webinar series. The said webinar series of the Agricultural Training Institute-Regional Training Center X (ATI-RTC X) is off to another fresh episodes focused surely to inform, enlighten and delight agri-enthusiasts from all walks of life.