Onion prices have more than quadrupled in the Philippines since late 2022, and they are now more expensive than meat. - AFP
MANILA (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): Eating onions and eggs is now beyond reach for some people in the Philippines.
“It’s now a luxury to eat onions and eggs here in the Philippines. Yes, I say luxury because they are so expensive now,” tweeted design consultant J.C. Aguinaldo, 35.
Farmers and experts attribute the surging prices to several factors, including the government’s flawed importation policies, cartels manipulating prices, the perennial neglect of farmers, extreme weather events and a bird flu outbreak.
Onion prices have more than quadrupled since late 2022, and the food item is now more expensive than meat. In December, onion prices rose as high as 700 pesos (S$17/RM55) per kilogramme, double the cost of beef and pork at wet markets. The prices have gone down slightly to 450 pesos or less in January as the harvest season kicked off.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) estimated that farmers would produce about 19,000 tonnes of onions in January, short of the projected 22,000-tonne demand this month.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who is also chief of the DA, approved the emergency importation of up to 21,060 tonnes of onions until Jan 27 in a bid to lower prices.
But based on the number of sanitary clearances applied by importers, only about 5,000 tonnes of onions would be coming in, which will not be enough to help bring down prices.
Meanwhile, eggs – a cheap source of protein for Filipinos – now cost eight to nine pesos apiece, more than the six pesos during the same period in 2022.
Mr Jayson Cainglet, executive director of farmers’ group Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura, said it had urged the DA to import onions as early as October 2022, predicting that local production would not be enough to meet demand.
He said that when white onions started running out as the year-end holidays approached, consumers bought more red onions instead. Supplies have since dwindled for both, jacking up prices.
Farmers were angered by the government’s importation plan, as they would be forced to sell their produce at cheaper prices. But with only a fourth of the target imports expected to come in by the end of January, the impact on farmers may be lessened.
“We think this is not only a miscalculation of the DA, but it seems they’re deliberately doing this,” said Cainglet. “We don’t have any problems with imports; just don’t do it when the harvest is here. They’re short-changing farmers.”
Two typhoons and a tropical storm also hit the Philippines in the last quarter of 2022, flattening some onion farmlands.
Lawmakers have started investigating the onion crisis. Senator Imee Marcos, the President’s sister, criticised the DA for its “abject lack of planning”.
Senator Cynthia Villar, who leads the agriculture committee probing the issue, also said cartels are hoarding onions to manipulate prices.
“These cartels have complete control over the supply, so they create artificial demand to increase prices. That’s what we should solve so that this does not happen again,” she said.
In the past decade, several government-led investigations found that many traders who buy crops from farmers at low prices are also the ones importing and hoarding the same produce. But past administrations had failed to clamp down on these cartels.
As for eggs, prices are now rising due to the double-whammy effect of higher chicken feed costs and the aftermath of a bird flu outbreak in late 2021.
The Philippine Egg Board estimates that some seven million chickens were culled, drastically reducing egg production.
Gregorio San Diego, chairman of the United Broilers Raisers Association, also said at a media forum that the cost of chicken feed rose from just five pesos per chicken in January 2021 to 19 pesos in January 2023.
“You can’t blame the sellers in the market for the price increase because they need to feed their families. Electricity prices are up; they need the income for those expenses,” he said.
Apart from onions and eggs, the Philippines has also been struggling with a shortage of sugar and salt since 2022 due to traders’ alleged hoarding, import policy reversals and typhoons.
As the country weathers one agricultural crisis after another, critics believe it is about time for Marcos, who assumed office in June 2022, to finally appoint an agriculture secretary who can deal with these problems head-on.
Senator Grace Poe said during the hearing on onion prices: “It’s time that we have a DA secretary that will take over and do something about this agricultural crisis. Before, it was sugar; now, it’s onions. At this rate, we might end up investigating everything in the kitchen.”
