Credit for farmers, assistance eyed to lower prices of onions

Jel Santos

The the increase in prices of red onions, which hit P500 per kilo during Christmas week, continue to make consumers suffer amid the holidays.
    To lessen their struggles, the Dept. of Agriculture is looking into more interventions in the supply chain to lower the prices of red onions, which already has a farm gate price of P300 per kilo and are being sold at higher prices when delivered to Metro Manila through an agent, DA Deputy Spokesperson Rex Estoperez said.
    “We have to address that also, kung papaanong intervention ang gagawin ng Department of Agriculture sa production areas (We have to address that also and determine what interventions must DA take in the production areas),” Estoperez said in a briefing yesterday, December 27.
    “Tinitingnan natin kung saan tayo nagkukulang, even though alam natin there are imperfections sa sistema natin… May mga kailangan tayong intervention, lalong-lalo na doon sa atin pong value chain (We want to determine where we have been falling short, even though we know there are imperfections in our system. We need interventions, especially in our value chain),” he went on.
    At present, agriculture officials are looking into interventions like credit for farmers, logistics and transportation assistance, aid on cold storages and packaging, among others. To note, based on recent DA monitoring, red onions are sold from P480 to P520 in some markets.
    Stressing the need for interventions, Estoperez said, “The same is true with gulay, iyong mga gulay doon sa atin pong Mountain Province, sa Benguet, ‘pag hindi ma-improve ito, including yung resiliency natin sa climate change, hindi natin maa-address ito, patuloy na mangyayari ito (The same is true with our vegetables from Mountain Province and Benguet. If we don’t improve this, including our climate change resiliency, this will continue,” Estoperez said.
    While there is still no estimated onion harvests for 2023, the official maintained that country has enough supply of onion and the agency is not yet considering importation.
    Some farmers, however, have been refusing to plant onions on “thousands of acres” due to the high cost of production and potential losses on rainy days.