Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. gave his personal assurance to congressmen Monday morning, Nov. 20 that the absurd price surge on onions that was witnessed last year won't happen again.
2022-like onion price surge won't happen again, DA chief Laurel assures House panel
Nov 20, 2023 05:46 AM
At a glance
Onions (left), DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. (MANILA BULLETIN)
Not on my watch.
Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. gave his personal assurance to congressmen Monday morning, Nov. 20 that the absurd price surge on onions that was witnessed last year won't happen again.
Laurel--in his first appearance in the House of Representatives as DA head honcho--attended a briefing of the Committee on Agriculture and Food chaired by Quezon 1st district Rep. Wilfrido Mark Enverga.
During the briefing, Enverga alluded to the onion price surge during the last quarter of 2022 that caused great burden on consumers. Back then, onions retailed for as high as P700 a kilo--making them more expensive than meat.
Laurel told the panel that as of Monday, red onion prices stood at P140 per kilo while while white onions were at P110 per kilo.
"Your honor, basically the data coming from DA is being brought up to me everyday; I myself have my own set of data sources from my old life. I confirm that the price of sibuyas pula (red onions) today is P140, ang sibuyas puti (for white onions) is P110," Laurel said.
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"I'm closely monitoring this and we will do action para hindi na mangyari yung nangyari noong nakaraang taon (so that what happened last year won't happen again)," added the DA chief.
"Thank you for that assurance," Enverga happily replied.
"We were assured last year--just for the information of the information of the good secretary--na by August, we were 114 percent self-sufficient sa onion noon (we would have been 114 percent self-sufficient on onion)," the Quezon solon shared.
"But unfortunately pagdating ng December, and laki pala ng discrepancy (when December came, the discrepancy was so big)," Enverga said.
Fishing tycoon Laurel was tapped as agriculture chief last Nov. 3. He took over the DA reins from President Marcos himself.
The Laurel family owns the 57-year-old Frabelle Fishing Corporation.