President and Agriculture Secretary Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. on Tuesday, Jan. 24, said that the government is implementing a program to assist onion farmers in increasing their yield in order to stabilize supply and lower the commodity's price.
During a sectoral meeting in Malacañang, the chief executive said such will be accomplished by “increasing the area that is being planted to onions, number one.”
“And secondly, we will help by – the DA (Department of Agriculture) will help by providing inputs. So the first part of that is we are going to the seed producers so that they will produce good seed that we can give to the farmers at some point. Iyon ang kanilang gamitin (That’s what they will use) as inputs. And all that what they need," he said.
In the said meeting, Marcos emphasized the need for new cold chain facilities and brought up the subject of how it affects the availability and pricing of onions.
“We need more cold storage, we need a better, stronger cold chain para ma-maintain naman natin, ma-preserve naman natin ‘yung agricultural products (in orfer to maintain and preserve the agricultural products),” he noted.
“So iyon ang mga plano, ‘yun ang mga ginawa namin para mga immediate needs doon sa ating mga nagtataasan na presyo ng agricultural products (So that’s the plan, that’s what we did to the immediate needs to the rising prices of agricultural products),” he continued.
Due to the anticipated lower price range of onions following the harvest season, the agriculture department has postponed the extension of the P250 suggested retail price (SRP).
With the arrival of more than 5,000 metric tons (MT) of imported onions, onion prices may fall to P100 to P150 per kilo, according to the DA.
Per the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), onion production in the third quarter of last year was recorded at 23.30 MT, 1.7 percent higher than the 22.92 MT output in the same quarter of 2021.
Furthermore, based on the DA's 2022 supply and demand outlook data, the country has a 120 percent sufficiency level with 312,830 MT of onions. According to the PSA, per capita onion consumption is 2.341 kg/year, with a monthly demand of 21,000 MT.
The total stock inventory of locally produced red onions in cold storage nationwide as of Dec. 15 last year was 2,209.45 MT, with no stocks of yellow onions or imported red onions in cold storage facilities.