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AN association of 20 big onion growers based in Bongabong, Nueva
Ecija, appealed to Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap to allow
importation of the commodity only from November to December this
year when local supply is anticipated to run out.
“We are not against importation, but we hope
DA will only release an import permit for the November to December
period, not now when harvest is still ongoing, said Alfredo G. Lim
Jr., spokesman of the Nueva Ecija onion growers.
Lim said the Department of Agriculture should
restrict importation of onion to save the P4-billion onion industry
and allow importation only when supply is in shortage.
“Once DA issues a permit, all types of
[illegal] commodities will arrive. There will be flooding and
dumping. Even now when there is no import permit yet, you already
see imported [smuggled] onions all over the market. There is no
winner in importation [not the farmers, not the Philippine
economy],” Lim said.
The onion growers assured retailers that they
can supply onion at P58 to P60 per kilo wholesale at Divisoria
retail shops and will try to keep this price until the third quarter
of the year so that there’s no present need for importation.
But the real casualty of more import permits are
35,000 onion growers throughout the country that also has negative
impact on 500,000 others in the supply chain who are involved in
service provision (seeds, fertilizers), cold storage, and
transportation and distribution.
Although, Benito M. Domingo, owner of
onion-growing BM Domingo Farms in Bongabong, admitted that onion
farms were hit by heavy rains, he said DA’s allowing early
importation while harvest is ongoing (six months in a year) from
late December to May will kill the industry.
“This already happened to garlic. We lost it
due to importation. We don’t want it to happen to onion. If we
allow importation early now, we won’t be surprised if farmers will
no longer plant onion next year,” he said.
Domingo also said that the country has lost its
yellow (or white) onion to imports also because of too much
importation.
From the two million bags production 20 years
ago, the country just produces (from January to April) 200,000 to
250,000 bags of white onion, he added.
He also said that the country used to export
onion to Japan 15 to 20 years ago.
The onion growers also ask government to curb
the smuggling of onion which represents an estimated 10 percent of
the four million bags (25 kilos per bag) yearly production
(accounted from cold storage capacity). Smuggled onion are priced
P10 per kilo lower than local onion, thus killing the local produce.
William Go, another onion grower, said consumers
should understand that while farm-gate price of onion is only at P20
per kilo, numerous costs (mainly cold storage as onion is a highly
perishable good), brings onion price up to P50 per kilo.
The country imports red onion from China and
white onion from Holland and New Zealand.
-- Ira Karen Apanay
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