Low onion prices puzzle DA, tillers

BONGABON, Nueva Ecija—What is keeping onion prices down when there is no glut and local supply can’t even meet demand?

This is a question which this town, the country’s top onion producer, and the Department of Agriculture (DA) could not answer.

A MAN sorts out newly harvested onions in a wholesale market in front of St. Vincent Church in Bayambang town in Pangasinan. Farmers say prices of locally grown onions have been dropping due to competition from imported onions, which are cheaper. WILLIE LOMIBAO/ INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

“This is what I need to understand—why prices are low when supply is low which means the demand should push up prices of onions,” said Andrew Villacorta, Central Luzon director of the DA, on Wednesday when he visited onion farmers here.

Villacorta said only 700 hectares were planted with yellow granex onions in Central Luzon this year, a drop from the 2,000 ha of farms that produced these onions in 2014. Red creole onions were planted on 8,000 ha this year, lower than last year’s 10,000 ha of farms that produced onions.

Red creole onions are sold for P10 to P12 per kilogram while yellow granex onions are priced at P11 per kg.

Villacorta noted that onion supply had dwindled.

Mayor Allan Gamilla said he inspected cold storage facilities in this town and adjoining areas and found these empty.

Villacorta said the level of sufficiency in yellow granex onions was 32 percent. Last year, the Bureau of Plant and Industry (BPI) reported that 9 million kg of onions were imported. But there was no record of any import permit issued for red creole onions, Villacorta said.

“The demand for red onions is about 190 million kg but production was around 145 to 150 million kg,” he said.

Ariston Balala, manager of the 300-member Kawanggawa Multipurpose Cooperative, said farmers barely recoup their investments by selling a kilo of red creole onions for P10 if they harvest 400 bags or 12 tons from a hectare of farm land.

Linda Palus, a farmer from Barangay Lusok here, said most onion growers who do not have access to loan facilities run to lenders in the neighborhood who charge 10 percent monthly interests.

“Often, they collect P100 in interest each month we pay P1,000 in installment,” she said. Sometimes, lenders extend special arrangements such as allowing farmers no specific payback periods for as long as they pay the interest and return the loan in full.

The cooperative said farmers have been marketing their produce in nearby towns themselves.

Since the latter part of 2014, the DA had been urging farmers to diversify their crops, in anticipation of this year’s economic integration of countries belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.