In the Philippines, Nueva Ecija growers urge the Department of Agriculture to control prices, with produce from abroad expected to flood local markets during harvest season. With the government’s plan to import 35,000 tons of red onions by mid-February to plug a local production gap, farmers expressed fear that this would further cut farm-gate prices and leave them with no profit.
Barangay Lusok farmer Leon Abunan said he was hoping that the importation of bulbs, whether red creoles or yellow granex, would not happen during the harvest season in March. Agriculture Secretary William Dar had approved the importation of red onions to “plug the two-month production gap in the country. These red onions can only be brought in up until mid-February so that it will not be in competition with the main harvest time starting March.”
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that the price of red onion reached P195 a kilogram for wholesale last month.
‘Crushing blow’
Abunan said the government should review its importation plan as this would cause a “crushing blow” to local onion farmers and producers. He said he had wanted to give up onion farming, which he started when he was 20, because of rising production cost and declining profit.
“My siblings had stopped planting onions and resorted to tomato farming [for better profit],” he said, adding that he would spend about P150,000 to plant onions in his farm. With the impending onion importation, he might not recover his capital, Abunan said.
Too high
Mayor Allan Gamilla said the P130 to P200 a kilo prevailing price of onions was “too high for consumers. But the government must exhaust all means to control the price before considering importation.”
Gamilla said harvest in his town would start by second week of February, almost the same time imported onions, if the importation pushed through, would flood the market.
[ P100 = €1.80 ]
