Last January 10, the Department of Agriculture reported a thin supply of red onions, causing spikes in its local retail prices, ranging from P100 to P180 per kg in Manila markets, or an increase from P70 to P150/kg a month ago.
DA Undersecretary for high value crops Cheryl Marie Natividad-Caballero said this could be due to factors like high demand, low supply and local harvest has not yet started.
She told Business Mirror the harvest periods for onions are February to April and August to December.
“The ones in cold storage may possibly be just being readied for release, since we were coming from the long holidays the past week,” she explained.
Bureau of Plant Industry data revealed the red onion inventory as of December 27 of 13,043 metric tons (MT) against monthly consumption of 17,000 MT.
All red onion stocks last year were locally produced owing to a bumper harvest, which prompted the agency to withhold any importation order for the crop.
The DA said it would build a command center by March to serve as a national database for agricultural commodities in keeping with the order last week by Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. to all regulatory agencies– namely BPI, Bureaus of Animal Industry and Fisheries and Aquatic Resources– to coordinate with the command center to ensure that for this year, the regulatory offices know the production data and when it is necessary to import,” DA spokesman Arnel De Mesa said.
“Timing is important, as well as the volume, and should be very predictive to avoid over- or under- importation, especially for the commodities that we have control of,” he added.