The government is expected to impose a temporary halt on onion imports by February next year to prioritize the local harvest and safeguard farmers’ incomes without disrupting market supply or burdening consumers.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the suspension would take effect about a month before the peak harvest period to prevent oversupply in the market.
‘For onions, definitely we will stop importation one month before harvest, which is around February,’ Tiu Laurel told reporters on the sidelines of the 47th meeting of the ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF).
Tiu Laurel explained that imports of white onions began as early as last month, which helped bring down retail prices to about P100 to P120 per kilo from a high of P160 before importation.
He added that shipments of red onions are also expected to enter the country starting Oct. 15 in time to stabilize supply ahead of the holiday season.
The secretary said that prices of red onions spiked to as high as P140 to P160 per kilo in the past week.
This, he said, prompted him to quietly authorize the early entry of shipments to temper the increase.
Tiu Laurel also gave an initial estimate of the red onion imports, saying the volume could range between 3,000 and 5,000 metric tons (MT).
According to the government’s onion industry roadmap 2021 to 2025, efforts are aimed at raising national onion production to 279,270 MT from 229,539 MT by expanding cultivated areas and improving crop yields.
The roadmap said that most of the country’s roughly 35,000 onion farmers grow their crops on small plots averaging 0.5 hectare (ha) per household across select regions.
With such limited land, these farmers primarily rely on family labor, earning around P5,100 per man-day for bulb onions and P2,100 for shallots.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) for 2020 shows the major onion-growing regions in the country are Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon and the Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan region.
Bulb onions occupy 79 percent of the total area at 14,453 ha while shallots cover 21 percent at 3,938 ha.
From 2011 to 2020, PSA data shows that production increased at an average annual rate of 10.72 percent, to 229,539 MT from 128,837 MT, while area planted grew by an average of 4.91 percent annually, to 18,391 ha from 14,641 ha.