Prices of red onions down to P70 a kilo

MANILA, Philippines — Prices of local red onions in cold storage facilities went down to P70 per kilo from the previous P120 amid a flood of imported red onions, farmers’ group Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura executive director Jayson Cainglet said yesterday.

With the arrival of imported red onions, onion farmers in Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan and Mindoro cannot sell their bulbs in cold storage, Cainglet said in an interview with The STAR.

“We expect the imported red onions to arrive but the market is already flooding with imported (onions). Obviously, these are smuggled. If these are imported, where did these arrive?” Cainglet said.

He criticized the Department of Agriculture (DA) and BPI for allowing the excessive importation of the bulbs.

“There was a slump in prices of onions in cold storage, how come the DA will import more. The markets are now being flooded with imports, legal or not, but the impact is on the local onion farmers,” Cainglet said.

Cainglet added that the imported onions are being delivered and stored in the cold storage facilities in Bongabon, Nueva Ecija to make it appear that these are locally produced.

He said following the onion crisis in 2022 where retail prices reached as high as P720, the DA provided special cold storage facilities to farmers to allow them to directly sell onions to the distributors in the markets.

“Many small traders and farmers stockpiled onions in the cold storage facilities. They cannot sell the stocks as big traders manipulate the prices. The prices in the cold storage went down to P70, P80 (per kilo), from the previous P120 to P130 (per kilo),” Cainglet noted.

According to Cainglet, the same individuals who were the subject of investigation of the House of Representatives are still controlling the trading of onions in the country.

Cainglet said onion farmers from Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan and Mindoro will picket in front of the DA in Quezon City today to protest the current flooding of imported onions.

Based on monitoring of the DA in Metro Manila markets, the retail prices of onions ranged between P120 and P190 per kilo.