Farmers Market, Cubao Quezon City

Farmers Market is one of the best “wet” markets in Metro Manila. Good and convenient location, airy set-up, wide aisles, numerous vendors, organized sections, excellent variety and competitive prices make for a great shopping experience. farmers 1 Any metro foodie from near or far should walk its aisles at least once. I believe great markets thrive when there is a meeting of two groups of people: vendors who offer quality, variety, good prices, consistency, volume, etc. and consumers who come regularly armed with serious aggregate buying power. Farmers (as it is called by regulars) has plenty of both groups – thus its success.

Farmers Market is a bit of a misnomer as it does not appear to be made up of farmers who cart their produce to the market then return to the farm after their harvest has been sold. farmers2 Instead, it is more of a traditional wet market where vendors are simply middlemen/women sourcing the best the country has to offer and selling to a wide variety of consumers ranging from the middle class housewife, the cook or major domo of a wealthy family or the buyer of a nearby restaurant or cafeteria. I raise this point as farmer’s markets are popping up all over North America and there has been a growing trend of getting the freshest produce directly from the source – think Union Square Farmer’s Market in New York City, for example.

Farmers Market in Cubao is located right on EDSA, beside the Cubao Shopping Complex and adjacent to the Cubao MRT station. It has a very central and accessible location. farmers3 You can take your car and use nearby parking (though it tends to get full later in the day), you can take an MRT, and there are all types of public transportation such as buses, jeepneys and taxis nearby. It’s tough to miss this landmark that has been around for roughly 30 years. The structure is rather large with approximately 3-4,000 square meters of covered area, possibly more.

farmers4 Everything is covered by a warehouse type roof that sits very high above the market, which provides an airy and less dark interior. The market is apparently private and seems better organized than most public markets. There are two levels at farmers, the upper that houses fruits, vegetables, flowers, etc. and the lower level that has the seafood and meat sections. Hygiene is generally good on the upper level but less consistent in the lower level. Depending on the time of day and the last pick-up of garbage, some parts of the market can be grotty.

The best part about the market is the variety of goods on offer. farmers5There are hundreds of vendors total. the Vegetable section had all the staples in stock plus lots of interesting finds such as small sweet korean squashes, very orange kamote, baby corn, leafy herbs, etc. The fruit section had a good selection of local and imported items. Flowers were abundant but too many chrysanthemums for my liking. farmers6 The seafood section was terrific – several counters offering fresh sushi grade tuna displayed on ice (probably for nearby restaurants), galunggong, talakitok, lapu-lapu, 6 kinds of seaweed, etc. The meat section looked extensive and besides the usual had goat meat, live native chickens, etc. Go early in the morning if you want first pick.

This is one of my favorite markets in Manila.

Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest

14 Responses

  1. Greetings!!!

    We would like to inquire about the daily prizes of primary vegetables from the provinses to manila. Please let us know your contact number/s. Thank you.

    Ian

    DTI-CITC

  2. Sorry, Ian, I do not have the daily prices of vegetables as you requested…shouldn’t DTI be sending canvassers to all major markets to get this information rather than relying on the net? This is a personal food blog, not a likely comprehensive survey source for a government report…it would worry me if the statistics put out by the DTI were not based on primary research…

  3. pwede po b keong maglagay ng bagong picture ng bagong farmers market dba po kc kagagawa lang nian… thank you

  4. hi, i’m a 5th year student from ust. i’m currently doing an architectural thesis about our city’s public market, and i’m taking the Farmer’s market as a case study. i was wondering if you can provide some research materials/ documents about the market that can be useful to my research. any form of help will be highly appreciated! thank you!

  5. pau, sorry, I don’t have any historical information on Farmer’s Market. Frankly, I don’t think there is much to the architecture of Farmers at all… seeing as how it is one bif GI sheet and steel structure… perhaps there are other more architecturally interesting structures that were used as markets…if you decide to do Farmers market, you should go directly to market management and interview them or to the Araneta family that owns the Cubao area…

  6. hey marketman, great site, love the food and pics, i agree with farmers market being a great place, im there almost every morning buying stuff, its really been developed well since this was Mrs. Araneta’s “baby” project. They just opened up a CCA school there, wherein you get to see the source of the products you are using for cooking. nice touch! also if its not too much of bother and you like their food, how about making a feature on korma or keema, Mr Kebab on Q. ave makes a mean version of it. thanks

  7. hi,

    thank you that i found this entry, as i posted something about my palengke day earlier at farmer’s market. i linked to this post, if you don’t mind.

  8. hi,i am a supplier of sugpo here in bulacan, i am planning to deliver sugpo in farmers market.is it okay? i want to ask if what is the price of sugpo per kilo, it is big sugpo..thank you so much……….

  9. Hello, I am from Baguio and I would like to do deliveries of fresh vegetables to Farmer’s Market if it is possible. How can I possibly do this and who will I deal with? Thanks.

  10. Hi! We have a newly opened Farmers Mini Mart here in Tacloban City. It would be good if we make a linkage with you. Is that possible? How to do that?

  11. hi mr marketman
    pls. give me the requirements how to register the hanging scale using in your market, specially in wet section,
    thanks

BLOG CATEGORIES

MARKETMAN ON INSTAGRAM

Subscribe To Updates

No spam, only notifications about new blog posts.