Onion supply soon to stabilize but ‘surplus’ problem looms

The government is urged to put up more cold storage facilities as onion producers are expected to yield a “bumper harvest” in the early part of 2023.

Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (Pcafi) president Danilo Fausto assured the country of stable supply of the crop starting January with the harvest season about to commence.

Fausto said the expected bumper harvest was due to a big number of local producers who planted onions to take advantage of competitive prices.

“If you have the bumper harvest, I’m predicting that if the government will not put up [cold storage facilities], we will have a surplus… in April. From January to March, they will reap their produce and the storage (facilities) will be full by then,” he added.

The current administration should pour its resources into the construction of additional cold storage facilities nationwide to store other agricultural goods, Fausto said.

He said Nueva Ecija has 10 cold storage facilities and Bulacan has eight, while Pangasinan and Occidental Mindoro have two each.

The National Capital Region has 27 storage plants, all of which have reached their maximum storage capacity with frozen meat and chicken.

“A cold storage facility has a dual purpose. It can store meat because its temperature is adjustable. It can become a freezer or chiller depending on the use,” he added.

Based on the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) price monitoring as of Dec. 21, locally produced red onions sold in Metro Manila retailed for P380 per kg from only P180 per kg last year. Imported red onions and local and imported white onions are unavailable as of writing.

The DA earlier dismissed plans to import onions for the rest of 2022 due to the forthcoming harvest season.

“The price of onions has increased due to shortage. But in the inspections of the BPI (Bureau of Plant Industry) , we found out that there are smugglers that are keeping their stocks in warehouses,” Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban had said.