La Trinidad’s Strawberry Festival 2026 put the spotlight on the town’s prized produce as growers competed for top honors in the Heaviest and Sweetest Strawberry contest, one of the celebration’s major highlights held on March 13 under the supervision of the Office of the Municipal Agriculture.
Emerging as champions were Jandy T. Buya and Mac Jalal I. Espiritu, both from Toyong, Pico, La Trinidad, after besting more than a dozen entries across the two featured categories.
Buya took the title for Heaviest Strawberry with his Sweet Sensation variety weighing 50 grams, while Espiritu won the Sweetest Strawberry category with his Binihoppy type entry, which registered a sweetness level of 14.07.
For their winning entries, both Buya and Espiritu received P5,000 in cash incentives.
In the Heaviest Strawberry competition, Fernando Duguit placed second with a 45.20-gram entry, followed by Mencio Lab-isa in third with 39.20 grams. In the Sweetest Strawberry category, Robert Jan Allan finished second with a sweetness level of 13.03, while Julius Mico came in third with 12.33.
The contest underscored La Trinidad’s continued push to celebrate and strengthen its strawberry industry, long regarded as one of Benguet’s agricultural pride points.
Earlier, Mayor Roderick Awingan also renewed his commitment to establish the long-delayed multi-million-peso strawberry demo farm aimed at improving production and sustaining the industry’s development.
“We have the funds,” Awingan said.