The Department of Agriculture (DA) may release before the end of the month an order that will authorize the importation of onions, according to the agency’s spokesperson.
DA Deputy Spokesperson Rex Estoperez said the import order must be released this month to prevent a repeat of the onion price spikes seen last year. In December, onion prices soared to P700 per kilogram, or higher than the daily minimum wage in the Philippines.
“Our senior undersecretary [Domingo Panganiban] already said that it will not happen again, and we’re trying to address it,” he said. “It won’t happen again [price spikes]. We are assuring that.”
According to the DA’s latest price monitoring, prices of both local red and white onions range from P160 to P200 per kilo.
Estoperez, however, said the DA is still finalizing the volume that should be imported.
He said there is a need to specify the target volume of white onions for institutional buyers to ease the pressure on the red onion supply.
The preliminary figure for importation is estimated at 8,800 metric tons, equivalent to two months’ worth of consumption, Estoperez said.
Meanwhile, the official said that while they are considering the setting of the suggested retail price (SRP) for onions, the supply inventory in cold storages must be released.
“We are considering all strategies to compel them to sell the onions in their cold storages. Because this is abusive,” Estoperez said.
The Bureau of Plant Industry has made an assurance that the Philippines currently has enough supply of red and white onions.
The attached agency of the DA said the country will have white onions until mid-July while the supply of local red onions will last until November.
Aside from calibrating imports and setting a suggested retail price for onions, the DA is keen on collaborating with the local price coordinating councils and the Philippine Competition Commission to prevent price manipulation.
The House Committee on Agriculture and Food has recently concluded its three-month probe into the sudden increase in onion prices last year. The panel found that that an onion cartel is allegedly “very much alive” in the country.
Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo and House Committee on Agriculture and Food Chairman Mark Enverga formally asked law enforcement agencies to “smash” the onion cartel.
“That’s why we are calling on the NBI [National Bureau of Investigation], PCC [Philippine Competition Commission], and DA [Department of Agriculture]: Please work together to expose the Onion Cartel,” Quimbo told reporters in a press briefing.
“With the push of Speaker Martin Romualdez and the diligence of Chair Mark Enverga, the committee worked hard to investigate and completely break the onion cartel that little by little brings torture to our farmers and people.”
Image credits: Nonoy Lacza