Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 5) — Local onion harvest this month is expected to reach thousands of metric tons, an agriculture official said on Thursday, though the government is still monitoring its impact on sufficiently meeting demand.
“Based on the estimate dun sa Bureau of Plant Industry, mga 19,000 metric tons ang papasok na harvest ng sibuyas,” Agriculture Assistant Secretary Rex Estoperez said.
[Translation: Based on the estimate from the Bureau of Plant Industry, the onion harvest is expected to yield 19,000 metric tons.
Estoperez said the farm gate price, however, remains high at ₱300 and this in turn means higher retail prices. In the last week of December, the produce sold for more than ₱700 per kilogram.
The department did not give an assurance that prices would go down even with the expected harvest.
“Pero kung ganito pa rin ang sitwasyon na ang farm gate prices ay hindi pa rin bumababa, ay mukhang mapipilitan tayo — sabihin natin nag-iingat tayo na gamitin yung band aid solution na mag-import,” Estoperez said.
[Translation: But if the situation remains at farm gate prices not going down, we could be forced to take the band aid solution of importation.]
He said any importation will factor in the interest of farmers and consumers.
“Binabalanse ang produksyon at ang pag-import. Baka masaktan yung ating mga magsasaka naman to the detriment of their production, samantalang pinoprotektahan natin ang consumers,” said Estoperez.
[Translation: We are trying to balance production and importation. It might adversely affect our farmers to the detriment of their production, while we are also protecting consumers.]
He said an assessment will be done in the coming months to see areas of improvement.
