The Philippines is considering importing onions for immediate delivery to boost scarce supplies and lower sky-high onion prices that have contributed to 14 years of high inflation, an agriculture official said on Monday.
Retail prices of purple onions have skyrocketed to 700 pesos ($12.7) per kilogram in recent days at markets in Manila, possibly the most expensive in the world according to some economists.
This compared with 120 pesos to 170 pesos per kilogram about four months ago. The import plan comes just days after the country's Agriculture Ministry announced it would not import onions as the local harvest season is about to begin and is expected to peak from February.
The Philippines is a regular importer of onions and usually buys them from China and other Asian neighbors. "We really don't have (enough) onions," Mercedita Sombilla, the agriculture ministry's deputy planning minister, told journalists. "We were really trying to see if we should import a little bit."
She said the monthly domestic demand for onions is about 22,000 tons.
Consumer prices in the Philippines rose 8.1 percent in December from a year earlier, the highest level since 2008, largely driven by double-digit food inflation, which economists say will lead to tighter monetary policy this year.
Sombilla said there are nearly 20,000 tonnes of local onions scheduled to be harvested in January.
“Even with this volume, I think we still really need to intervene in the market to help bring prices down a bit,” she said.
Why is the price high? Philippine legislators now want to investigate the cause of the outbreak, with the general feeling that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who is also agriculture minister, is "directly responsible".
Some price increases originate from forces beyond the control of the individual. Global inflation, due to a variety of causes including the Russo-Ukrainian war, supply chain problems and extreme weather events, is weighing on food prices everywhere.
Content created and supplied by: Legendboss (via Opera News )
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