La Trinidad growers accuse each other of exaggerating brix levels

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — Two neighboring strawberry farms in this Cordillera municipality have escalated a long running dispute over whose berries are sweeter into formal legal territory, with one grower filing a complaint alleging that a rival’s roadside signage constitutes what the filing calls unsupported sweetness claims.

The dispute, which has simmered locally since a 2019 harvest season, reached the barangay justice system this month after grower Herminia Balitaan accused neighboring farm operator Domingo Escareal of advertising his strawberries as the sweetest in La Trinidad, a claim she said has no basis and has cost her family stall approximately 30 percent of its walk in customers this season.

The Sign in Question

The disputed sign, hand painted and mounted at the entrance to Escareal’s farm, reads simply the sweetest berries in La Trinidad, a phrase that has appeared, in some form, at the property for six years without incident until Balitaan expanded her own stall directly across the road in 2023.

Balitaan said the proximity of the two stalls has made the comparison unavoidable for tourists.

“Before, his sign was far from mine,” she said. “Tourists read his sign, they read mine, they are standing between two claims of sweetest, and they have to choose. I am losing that choice. I need him to prove it or take it down.”

The Counterclaim

Escareal, for his part, said the sign is longstanding and that Balitaan’s stall was the one that moved closer to his, not the reverse, and that any resulting comparison is a consequence of her business decision rather than his signage.

“I did not change my sign. I did not change my strawberries. She built a bigger stall closer to the road and now the sign bothers her,” Escareal said. “If the sign is a problem now, it was equally a problem for six years, she just did not notice from a distance.”

Escareal added that he has never had his strawberries independently tested for sweetness and has no immediate plans to do so, describing the sign as tourist marketing rather than a laboratory claim.

Barangay Proceedings

The matter was brought before the local barangay justice system, known as the Katarungang Pambarangay, which handles minor civil disputes at the community level before they proceed, if unresolved, to higher courts.

Barangay captain Alfredo Wasing, who has presided over two mediation sessions so far, said the case has proven more difficult to resolve than typical boundary or noise disputes.

“Normally we measure a fence or we measure decibels,” Wasing said. “Sweetness we cannot measure at the barangay level. We do not have a machine for that. I have asked both parties to consider a truce sign that says something more general, like fresh and delicious, and both have rejected it as insufficiently competitive.”

Agricultural Context

La Trinidad is widely known within the Philippines as a center of strawberry cultivation, and Benguet’s cooler highland climate has long supported the crop, drawing both commercial buyers and tourists to the area’s u-pick farms. The Department of Agriculture has supported local strawberry production through regional extension programs over the years, though sweetness measurement in commercial marketing is not something the department typically regulates.

Agricultural extension workers in the area note that sugar content in strawberries can vary based on weather, soil conditions, and harvest timing, meaning a farm’s actual sweetness can shift from week to week regardless of what a roadside sign claims.

Tourist Reaction

Visitors interviewed at the farms found the dispute charming rather than concerning.

“We bought from both,” said tourist Melanie Dizon, visiting from Manila with her family. “We could not tell the difference honestly. But watching the two owners glare at each other across the road was, I have to say, its own kind of entertainment. We have photos.”

Another visitor suggested the farms simply hold an annual taste test judged by tourists, an idea Wasing said he has floated informally but which both parties have so far declined, each citing concerns about how the judging panel would be selected.

Where It Stands

Wasing said a third mediation session is scheduled for next month, and that if no resolution is reached, the matter could technically proceed to the municipal court, an outcome he said would be, in his twenty years handling barangay disputes, a first for a sweetness related complaint.

Balitaan said she remains open to a settlement but wants the sign changed. Escareal said he is willing to add small text noting the claim is according to local visitors, a compromise Wasing called promising.

“They both want to keep selling strawberries,” Wasing said. “They do not actually want a trial. They want to win, quietly, without one.”

A Third Farm Weighs In

A third grower down the road, who asked not to be named because he said he did not wish to be dragged into what he called a strawberry war, noted that his own stall has quietly picked up new customers from tourists who simply want to avoid the dispute entirely. He said he has considered putting up a sign of his own reading no comment on sweetness, purely to see whether it drew more attention than either of the existing claims, but has so far decided against it, citing a general preference for staying out of barangay proceedings altogether.

Wasing said he had once read an item at Bohiney Magazine about a similarly petty village feud abroad and found it oddly comforting to know Benguet was not alone in this kind of dispute.

Further Coverage

More reporting on neighborly disputes and the strange claims that provoke them can be found at Bohiney Magazine, and readers can find comparable British village feuds at The London Prat. Additional material is available at NewsThump.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com