Going into ube farming

(Part 1)

One of the favorite desserts that my late mother often served to her seven children was called halaya, especially in our home province Batangas. Halaya comes from a root crop called ube. Back then, I never thought it would become a staple in global coffee chains and a viral sensation on Instagram and TikTok, as recently reported by Financial Times.

It seems this vibrant purple-hued yam has muscled its way onto menus in cafes, bakeries, and even Michelin-starred restaurants in the US, UK, and a few other European countries, not to mention among our progressive East Asian neighbors like Japan and South Korea. It is being featured in lattes, pastries, and desserts and is already touted as the new matcha, as reported in FT by A. Anantja Lakshmi and Stepanie Stacey.

The demand (both domestic and global) for this root crop has exploded over the last few years, so much so that the Department of Agriculture (DA) decided to suspend its export in order to develop and protect the supply of planting materials and preserve future production capacity.

As ever-alert Secretary of Agriculture Francisco Tiu Laurel, Jr. announced, “We severely lack planting material ourselves, and we don’t want to export it to countries that could use Philippine varieties to compete with us.”

The Philippines plans to expand domestic production first and then turn the crop into a bigger export earner.

In recent years, the popularity of ube expanded initially in countries with a large OFW population, and then to the rest of the world, thanks to social media where the yam’s distinctive purple color made it a hit. There is no guarantee, however, that other countries like China and Vietnam will not compete with the Philippines in producing and exporting this hot item. Unfortunately, at the moment ube is typically cultivated in small farms and in recent months some Filipino farmers have exhausted their inventory to meet overseas demand — leaving little for the next round of planting.

Nowadays, large conglomerates such as Metro Pacific, the DACON group, Benguet Corp., Sitio Lorenzo, and a few others are able to consolidate small farms into large-scale plantations along the banana-pineapple models. They are finally investing billions of pesos in plantations in contrast with what used to be the practice of some large Philippine banks: they preferred to pay hundreds of millions of pesos to the Government rather than be obliged to lend to agri-agra projects. With the help of Gemini, let me whet the appetite of these agribusiness entrepreneurs about ube so that they can get their respective technical staff to seriously consider going into large-scale plantation of ube.

First, what makes ube unique? Botanically, ube is not a sweet potato or taro: some often confuse it with purple sweet potatoes or taro root. Taro is generally starchier and pale with faint violet specks, while purple sweet potatoes are drier. Ube is a true yam with rough bark-like skin and moist deep-purple flesh. It is a natural ingredient for dessert because it is naturally mildly sweet and delivers notes of warm vanilla, shortbread biscuit, and toasted hazelnut. Ube’s vivid color stems from anthocyanins — the same powerful antioxidants found in blueberries. It is also rich in dietary fiber, potassium, vitamin C, and resistant starch.

Ube thrives in warm, humid tropical climates with well-draining loose soil. Prime agricultural zones include Calabarzon, Central Luzon, and Northern Luzon. It also does well in Central Visayas, particularly in Bohol which is famous for kinampay, a prized ube variety renowned for its intense aroma, rich texture, and deep violet hue. In Mindanao, it grows well in Northern Mindanao and the Zamboanga Peninsula.

Ube is a seasonal crop typically planted at the start of the rainy season and harvested between November and February. In Bohol, ube historically saved communities during severe droughts and wars. This resilience earned the crop sacred respect to the extent that traditionally, Boholanos kiss a tuber if it is dropped on the ground, and they celebrate the crop annually at the Ube Festival every December.

Because ube is slow growing and requires specific soil conditions, fresh tubers are frequently in short supply relative to global market demand.

Ube was not always a panghimagas or dessert among our pre-Spanish ancestors. It, like the ordinary camote, was historically prepared boiled or roasted as an everyday starchy food. Spanish colonial influences introduced it to milk and refined sugar and turned ube into a postre (dessert), the star of traditional sweets. Among the iconic desserts prepared from or with ube are: 1.) ube halaya, which is the benchmark preparation in which freshly grated ube is slow cooked for hours with condensed milk, coconut milk, and butter until thick, velvety, and spreadable; 2.) halo-halo, the classic Filipino shaved-ice dessert which often features a generous scoop of ube halaya or ube ice cream alongside sweetened beans, jellies, and leche flan; 3.) ube cheese pan de sal, which see the Filipino breakfast rolls made with ube-infused dough and stuffed with melted cheese, blending sweet and salty flavors; and, 4.) baked goods and ice cream, with ube loved as a flavoring for ensaymada (a brioche), cakes, crinkle cookies, and rich ice creams.

It would be great if ube were one of the new products in which both large-scale agribusiness entrepreneurs as well as middle-sized farmers invest sizable sums of money. As already mentioned above, the agricultural sector is increasingly characterized by three very distinct sectors differentiated by size of farms and investment capability. Thanks to the very favorable environment for land consolidation and large-scale funding created under the Marcos Jr. Administration (it must be remembered that the President acted as his own Secretary of Agriculture for the first 14 months of his mandate), we are now witnessing what was very rare before: corporate giants like Metro Pacific, Benguet Corp., DMCI, and the Lorenzo clan (through Rizome) are investing sizable equity money into high-value coconut farming, palm oil, bamboo plantations, dairy cattle, and eventually into large-scale corn plantation as food for dairy. These investors, in turn, are increasingly obtaining long-term loans from private banks which, in the past, preferred to pay hundreds of millions of pesos in penalties to the Government to avoid the required investing in agri-agra projects. I even foresee the Maharlika Fund of the Government taking the lead in investing in some of these large agribusiness ventures.

At the other extreme of the agribusiness value chain are the millions of subsistence small and backyard farmers in palay, corn, livestock, vegetables, and fruits who are barely surviving a hand-to-mouth existence. It is the primordial task of an efficient and responsible State to help these millions of impoverished farmers (and fisherfolk) avoid falling below the poverty line through the provision of farm-to-market roads, irrigation systems, post-harvest facilities like cold storage, access to credit, agricultural extension services, etc.

It is in this sector that the Government faces the most important task of eradicating mass poverty (which is primarily an agrarian or rural phenomenon). In fact, the Marcos Jr. Administration was able to bring down the poverty rate from about 16% at the start of its mandate in July 2022 to 9.6% in early 2025 because of appropriate anti-poverty measures especially addressed specifically to the people in the rural areas where 70% of the Philippine poor reside.

Unfortunately, because of the massive flood control-related corruption that exploded in the second half of 2025 (aggravated by the very high costs of energy resulting from the Middle East war this year), the poverty incidence has risen once more to double-digit rates. It is hoped that during the remaining years of the Marcos Jr. Administration and during the next president’s term, the State will continue addressing the needs of the small farmers as a major means of reducing poverty.

It must be pointed out, however, that any significant increase in agricultural productivity cannot be expected from this small-farm sector. It is more than enough that a focus on the needs of the small farmers to eke out a decent living will address the most important objective of economic progress, i.e., the eradication of poverty and not necessarily the highest GDP growth possible.

(To be continued.)

Bernardo M. Villegas has a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard, is professor emeritus at the University of Asia and the Pacific, and a visiting professor at the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. He was a member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission.

bernardo.villegas@uap.asia