Onion growers grapple with low prices

BONGABON, Nueva Ecija, Philippines — Onion growers in this town said they would experiment with a new planting season this year to see whether sales would improve after farm-gate prices dropped to P40 from P200 a kilogram since the start of February.

Bongabon is considered the country’s onion basket, although farmers from San Jose City and the towns of Sto. Domingo, Rizal and Gabaldon, all in Nueva Ecija province, also grow onions during the dry season.

Farmers said they could not understand why onion prices fell by as much as 400 percent in the last two months. In December last year, farm-gate prices peaked at P200 a kilo.

Import suspension

Mayor Allan Gamilla said the price drop could not be attributed to a new round of importations since Agriculture Secretary William Dar had li¬mited requests to import onions to 5,500 metric tons.

Gamilla also said unused permits from the Department of Agriculture could no longer be used.

“We do not know how pri¬ces dropped suddenly, especially during harvest,” said Michael Lidura, an onion grower from Barangay Lusuk here.

Lidura said farmers were worried that prices could even drop to P30 or P35 a kilo ahead of the scheduled harvest of red onions by the middle of March.

As of Feb. 22, the yellow granex was sold for P21 from P70 a kilo in December, according to the municipal government.

“Do not believe in speculations that prices are sliding because of importation because that may just be a strategy so you lose hope and sell at prices they will (traders) dictate,” Gamilla told the farmers.

Last week, Gamilla submitted to Dar a copy of a municipal council resolution that sought for the suspension of onion importation during harvest.

Onion farmers start planting in September until January. White or yellow variety is harvested after 90 to 110 days while the red variety is harvested after 120 days.

View comments

TAGS: Onion prices