Smuggled onions booming online

MANILA, Philippines — Smuggled and imported onions being sold online have contributed to the slump in the farmgate price of local bulbs, according to a farmers’ group.

In an interview with The STAR, Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag) executive director Jayson Cainglet noted that illegally sourced onions are sold for as low as P25 per kilo on Facebook.

“When we reported about the decline in the farmgate price (of local red onions) to P29 per kilo on Friday, it increased to P40 to P42 per kilo, but now it went down to P28 per kilo,” Cainglet said yesterday.

Onion farmers were forced to rent storage space amid the depressed farmgate price, he added.

“How can local farmers compete with the smuggled and imported onions sold for as low as P25 per kilo on Facebook?” he pointed out.

Cainglet criticized the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) for failing to act on the matter, calling for a total revamp of the BPI.

The BPI allowed the importation of 21,000 metric tons of onions, with at least 99 MT of imported bulbs entering the country between Jan. 1 and Jan 15 despite the Dec. 31, 2023 deadline.

Onion production is expected to increase this year as more farmers planted onions, Cainglet said.

“Many onion farmers have started harvesting and they will not be affected by the El Niño,” he said.

Farmers were encouraged to plant as the farmgate price averaged between P50 and P90 per kilo during the peak harvest in 2023, he added.

Onion farmers are incurring losses with the P28 per kilo farmgate price as the production cost is already P30 per kilo, he noted.

The retail price in Metro Manila markets remains high despite a slump in the farmgate price of onions.

Based on the Department of Agriculture’s monitoring, the retail price of local red onions ranged between P70 and P150 per kilo; local white onions, between P65 and P100 per kilo; imported red onions, between P90 and P100 per kilo and imported white onions, between P80 and P120 per kilo.