Onion farmers in the provinces of Pangasinan and Nueva Ecija are opposing the proposed suspension of the special safeguard (SSG) duty imposed on onions. They claim it would mean huge losses for them and may lead to the demise of the onion industry.
On August 23, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said he would ask the Bureau of Customs to lift the SSG. His goal was to lower onion prices in the market and help ease inflation. At the time, red onions were sold for P120 a kilogram (€1.93) while white onions were sold at P100 a kg (€1.61).
The SSG is tariff which developing countries may impose on a farm commodity once it is sold below a “trigger price,” which in the Philippines is P74.21 a kg (€1.19) for imported onions.
But farmers complained that lifting the SSG would flood local markets with imported onions that would be sold at P50 a kg. They said locally produced onions could not compete with that, because prevailing farm-gate prices were already at P60 a kg.
Aside from all that, farmers said they still have 2.2 million bags (25 kg each) in warehouses in the provinces. As of Aug. 2, warehouses in Nueva Ecija had 202,202 bags while those in Bulacan province and Metro Manila had a combined inventory of 1,316,000 bags, onion growers told the Bureau of Plant Industry. The stocks could last until November.
Source: newsinfo.inquirer.net
