Veggie importers say onion price may triple next month

A group of vegetable importers said yesterday that the continuing refusal by the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) to issue additional permits for the importation of onion may result in a three-fold increase in the price of the commodity.

In a press conference, Lilibeth Valenzuela, president of the Philippine Vegetable Importers/Exporters Inc. (PVIEI), said the increase is likely to happen next month which is the start of the so-called peak season.

Valenzuela said that the price of onion could reach as high as P120 per kilo "like what happened two years ago when importation ban was made."

"Prices will surely go up because the supply will not be enough if we don’t import," she added.

Valenzuela said the prevailing price of onion in the market today is P40 per kilo at the average with the lowest price being at P35 per kilo and the highest at P50 per kilo.

She noted that during the peak of harvesting season of onion, or around first quarter of the year, where the market had more than enough supply of onion, the price per kilo of onion was at P25 to P35.

It was also during this season that application for importation of onion was stopped by the importers so as not to be accused of "harming" local producers of onion.

However, Valenzuela pointed out, the impending festivities in the coming months may call for importation of onion to keep the market price of the crop low.

According to Valenzuela, the BPI, an agency attached to the Department of Agriculture (DA), stopped issuing the import permits for onions after it allegedly succumbed to the pressure of politicians, who were allegedly pressed by traders allegedly disguising as onion farmers to ask BPI to stop issuing additional import permits.

"They want the BPI to stop issuing additional import permits until December. There are only 74 permits issued so far, way below the 1,000 permits issued last year but it (1,000 import permits) did not affect the prevailing price of P30 to P40 last year," Valenzuela explained.

Early this month, the PVIEI filed a complaint against the BPI before a Manila Regional Trial Court for the ban on the issuance of more import permits.

Lawyer Ariel Genaro Jawid, board secretary of the PVIEI, said nowhere in Presidential Decree 1433, otherwise known as the Plant Quarantine Law, does it state that the BPI is authorized to impose volume restrictions or ban vegetable importations.

Jawid claimed they only import white onion when the local production of red onion is low or the price of onion in the local market is high, which is what was reportedly happening now.

He said they do not import onions "if there’s plenty of produce (here) because we don’t want to compete with the local farmers, we only provide immediate relief."

Jawid said local farmers should not blame the vegetable importers but the flooding of smuggled vegetables, including onions, which affect their income.