EDITORIAL - Weeping again over onions

The onion jokes during the Christmas 2022 season have not yet receded from memory, but it seems the government has forgotten and lessons have not been learned.

Last year, agricultural organizations warned that onion production was down and white onions in particular could disappear by the third quarter. When white onions, needed mostly by institutional users for fastfood items such as pizza, burgers and onion fries run out, the switch to red onions affects the supply and prices of the crop.

Agricultural producers, who noted a drop in onion production due to various factors including high fertilizer prices, urged the government to make timely onion importations to ensure sufficient supply especially during the fourth quarter when demand traditionally goes up due to the holidays.

But the Department of Agriculture, rocked by a scandal involving sugar importations, blew hot and cold on importing onions of whatever color or variety. By Christmas, red onion prices were skyrocketing, hitting P700 to P750 a kilo, and still there were no white onions for bistek and sisig.

The white onions finally arrived and all onion prices began softening only after the holidays. During the Holy Week break this year, red onions were being sold for P80 to over P100 a kilo depending on the quality of the produce and location of the retailer.

This week, however, monitoring by the Department of Agriculture itself showed that onion prices are going up again. Prices in several markets in Metro Manila have surged to P200 a kilo, and ranged from P160 to P190 in other areas. Grilled by lawmakers yesterday, DA officials said they had not yet placed import orders.

Rosendo So, president of farmers’ group Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura, who had warned of the onion crisis last year, said white onions should start arriving by August when supplies grown domestically run out. The onion harvest is completed in Northern Luzon although it is still ongoing in Mindoro. So said the bulk of the onion harvest is now in the hands of traders.

Consumers have not yet seen relief from sky-high prices of sugar, which have stubbornly resisted supposed measures being implemented to bring down prices. Food inflation – the biggest contributor to the country’s current high inflation – is driven mostly by the prices of confectionery and other sweetened food items. The last thing consumers need at this time is to weep again over the high prices of onions.