Imports tagged cause of falling onion prices, losses

BAYAMBANG, Pangasinan–Farm gate prices of red onions here continued to nose-dive, sending hundreds of farmers worrying about how to recoup their borrowed farm expenses.

On Tuesday, a kilogram of red onions was selling for P10 to P13, said Mercedes Solis-Peralta, the town’s agriculturist.

She said this was the lowest price that onion farmers experienced in the last 15 years after 2000 when farm price of onions reached P4 per kg.

Peralta said the low price this year may be attributed to the glut of onions and low demand.

Ronnie Ringor, an onion farmer of Barangay Manambong Parte here, said prices went down because the market is flooded with imported onions, which, he said, were cheaper.

“How can we pay our debts now? We borrowed our capital,” said Ringor, who has a 3-hectare farm in the village. “It’s as if we are giving our onions for free,” he added.

Peralta said a farmer spends P150,000 to P175,000 to produce 15 metric tons of onions from every hectare of farmland.

During harvests, which started this month, middlemen connect farmers to traders, who in turn sell the product in wholesale markets in Metro Manila and other provinces.

This central Pangasinan town is Ilocos region’s leading onion producer, with 650 hectares of agricultural land in its southern villages planted to onions.

For an onion farmer to break even, Peralta said, farm gate price of onions must be at least P20 per kg, and for a farmer to earn a little, the farm gate price should be P25 per kg.

“If the price range is from P35 to P50 per kg, that’s normal. Our farmers really earn [with that price],” she said.

She said other farmers have opted to keep their harvests in storage facilities here and in neighboring Tarlac province, and will sell them when prices improve.

But most farmers’ produce, she said, could no longer be accommodated because the facilities are already full. Without storing them for future trading, farmers are forced to sell their products at low prices, she said.

Ringor said onion harvest will still have its peak in March and April, dousing hopes that farmers could still recover. He said four years ago, the price of onions reached P67 per kg. Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon