TARLAC CITY, Tarlac (Jan. 9, 2022) — The Department of Agriculture (DA) plans to import onions next month because of the continued rise in the produce’s market price despite Tarlac and Nueva Ecija still have standing crops that will peak in February and March.
The DA has proposed to import 22,000 metric tons of onions despite 19,000 mt coming on January 15.
Fifty percent of the proposed new import round will go to Luzon, 25% to the Visayas, and 25% to Mindanao.
According to DA Assistant Secretary Rex Estoperez, the import measure was to lower the farm gate price to P250 per kilo.
Estoperez said that the implementation of the P250 per kilo suggested retail price on onions ended on January 7, but there was no compliance.
Farm gate prices of red onions in Tarlac and Nueva Ecija range between P250 and P370 per kilo. The rains last week also did not help as onion growers in both provinces were not able to harvest.
“If the farmgate prices range from P350 to P420, and traders will add their incidental expenses, we don’t expect the retail prices to go down,” Estoperez said.
Last year, onion farmers in Barangay Ablang Sapang, Moncada, Tarlac, benefitted from a cold storage facility project of the DA that was turned over to them.
The onion shortage has been blamed on the failure of the DA to adequately project supply and demand for the commodity, resulting in a delay in turning to imports.
