Senior Deputy Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte 1st district Rep. Sandro Marcos is open to studying ways for the province to help bring down the price onions.
In a press briefing with reporters in his district office Tuesday, Jan. 3, Marcos said that he would talk to his agriculture specialist regarding the matter, even as he bared that Ilocos Norte could have a surplus of onions this harvesting season.
"I believe here in Ilocos may surplus naman ang onions natin dito. So we’ll have to find a way to hopefully export it to different places or different provinces," he said.
"Hopefully makatutulong yan hindi lang sa atin para kumita ang mga farmers natin kundi para sa ibang mga probinsya (Hopefully that would not only help local farmers earn profit, but also help other provinces as well)," the presidential son noted.
"Pero sa totoo lang kailangan ko munang pag-aralan anong kailangan gawin dahil like I said harvesting season pa lang dito (But in truth, that still needs to be studied since, like I said, it's still the harvesting season). So let’s look into it. I will ask my agriculture specialist si Mang Edwin Carino kung anong magagawa natin (on what needs to be done).”
The limited supply of onions have caused prices of the produce to reach as high as P500 per kilo, reports said.
But in Kadiwa stores, onions are sold for just P170 per kilo.