Onion tears

“Sudden spikes in the prices of commodities with questionable reasons such as the past experiences of increases in the costs of sugar or rice are traced to profiteering.

“One

of the solutions is to flood the market with the intercepted onions using the Kadiwa outlets which may pull down prices a bit.

For the past few days, Filipinos witnessed something outrageous which was the price of the usually neglected onion breaching the roof at an unprecedented P750 per kilo and rising.

Imagine acquiring a quarter of a kilo of the vegetable to make a salad and to add spice to a Holiday meal for P275.

The Department of Agriculture said it has launched an investigation into the phenomenon which many are wondering how this came about as onions have never been in short supply before.

Price manipulation is suspected since the cost upswing came along with the foiling of attempts to smuggle the product after possible hoarding to create an artificial shortage during the Holiday Season when the demand for Noche Buena and Media Noche ingredients shoot up.

One of the solutions is to flood the market with the intercepted onions using the Kadiwa outlets which may pull down prices a bit.

The DA plans to cover the whole country with Kadiwa stores and trucks.

DA Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban said the DA suspects that a syndicate is behind the market manipulation. The operations behind the expensive onions are quite sophisticated and very lucrative.

The Bureau of Customs reported confiscating smuggled red onions with an estimated value of P20 million in a port in Misamis Oriental days after an illegal shipment of P30 million worth of yellow onions was stopped.

Sudden spikes in the prices of commodities with questionable reasons such as the past experiences of increases in the costs of sugar or rice are traced to profiteering.

The DA said it needs the cooperation of the public to establish a trail and pin down the unscrupulous traders.

In terms of smuggling, the DA is banking on leads that it is sharing with the Customs bureau which both agencies hope will lead to solutions that will fix a problem that officials said: “has been there for the longest time.”

The DA was also directed by its head, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., to craft measures to help increase profits and yields of onion planters through interventions like directly connecting farmers and consumers with the Kadiwa network, helping cooperatives to take the role of traders, establishing cold storage facilities in strategic areas and offering financial assistance.

A floor and ceiling price for the precious root bulb is also being considered so that farmers do not have to sell their produce at very low prices despite the astronomical cost in the market.

While the DA tries to untangle the situation, consumer power can help by boycotting the overpriced onions.

High prices may be influenced by several complex factors but all boils down to the basic economic principle of supply and demand.

Without buyers, the price of the commodity will naturally fall and in effect flush out those in the warehouses.

Thereafter, with the domestic harvest season, market goers should buy only local onion which is smaller but has a stronger bite.

Buy shallots for the moment, which do not taste far too different from onions, to turn the tables on the wicked traders.