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Imports of onions will be “calibrated” to protect farmers during the harvest season
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Onion has been in short supply the last few months, leading to huge spikes in prices
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Agriculture official claims the price of onion is now starting to go down
The Marcos administration will implement a “calibrated importation of onions” to protect farmers during the harvest season, according to a Department of Agriculture official.
“Pagdating naman po doon sa mini-mention ninyo tungkol sa importation, iyong harvest po na ini-expect natin sa ating magsasaka, iyan po ay (When it comes to importation, the expected harvest is) taken into consideration by both the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) on the high-value crop… it’s a bureau, and our unit [is] in charge of that certain commodity,” Agriculture Assistant Secretary Kristine Evangelista said in a press briefing on January 14.
“So a calibrated importation was something they had to look into… As of now, we are waiting for reports kung ilan po ang nag-apply (of how many will apply to import) and at the same time I don’t know if you noticed, mayroon pong cutoff iyong ating (there’s a cutoff in) importation unlike before,” she said, adding those are the criteria BPI put in place to safeguard the harvest of farmers.
The supply of onions in the last few months has been limited, leading to huge spikes in prices.
During the briefing, Evangelista noted that the farmgate price of onions has already gone down to P250 per kilo. In December, onion prices spiked to as high as P450 to P460.
“But this is something that we have to validate because it might just be in one area, but so far, from the reports I am receiving from the farmers themselves, and even some institutional buyers, there has been already a decline pagdating po sa (when it comes to) farmgate price,” Evangelista said.
On the other hand, the retail price of onions, based on DA’s daily monitoring of 13 markets in Metro Manila stood at P400 to P550.
“Mataas pa rin po iyan (That’s still high) considering the cost structure of the onions, this is the production cost because we also talk to our farmers to find out how much it costs to produce onions,” she said.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., concurrently head of the DA, recently approved the importation of 21,060 metric tons of fresh onions to address the supply gap and stabilize the soaring price of the commodity.
