MANILA, Philippines — The farmgate price of onions further declined to P29 per kilo compared to the previous P40 per kilo or a decrease of P11, according to farmers’ group Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag) yesterday.
Based on reports on Thursday from onion producing areas, particularly Nueva Ecija and Pangasinan, the farmgate price of red onions ranged between P29 and P30 per kilo compared to the previous level of P38 and P40 per kilo, Sinag chairman Rosendo So said.
“The farmgate price of red onions continues to go down amid the start of the harvest,” So said, noting that farmers harvest an average of 12 to 13 tons per hectare for red onions.
Despite a slump in the farmgate price of red onions, the retail prices of the bulbs remain high, he said.
“The low farmgate price should be felt by the consumers,” So added.
Meanwhile, farmers in Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija and Mindoro Occidental suffer a huge drop in farmgate prices of white onions now sold for as low as P10 per kilo, according to Federation of Free Farmers national president Leonardo Montemayor.
Based on monitoring of the Department of Agriculture (DA), the retail price of local red onions is still sold as high as P150 per kilo and local white onions at P100 per kilo.
Imported red onions are priced at P100 per kilo and imported white onions at P120 per kilo.
The problem on the onions persisted after the retail price of the bulbs reached as high as P720 per kilo in December 2022, Sinag executive director Jayson Cainglet said.