Onion still a crying mess
No longer an ordinary housewife’s lament each time she goes to the market, the issue of the staggering price of onions has now led to the almost daily bashing of political personalities, fault-finding or indulging in the blame game, inquiries in Congress, and the expected, jokes ranging from hilarious to off-color on social media.
A root vegetable found in kitchens all over the country, the onion is regarded as a common condiment used to enhance the flavor of many dishes. It is the staple of most cuisines — especially Asian — worldwide.
Except for Jainism, one of the world’s oldest religions whose advocates live mainly in India and believe in the sanctity of human and non-human life, there is probably no other culture that does not use onions to prepare dishes. Believers of Jainism thrive on a Lacto-vegetarian diet that does not include onions, potatoes, or garlic, root crops that, when extracted, cause harm to insects or microorganisms living underground. But why all the fuss about onions? Apart from its reported medicinal value — the onion has been cited as a source for lowering high cholesterol levels, reducing risks of having a heart attack or stroke, and even containing anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, and anti-oxidant qualities — it definitely adds a lot of flavor and aroma to cooking,
And what is Philippine cuisine all about but the flavor and savory scent?
Think of cooking beef steak without onions, pancit, sotanghon, sopas, rellenong Bangus and fried rice without sibuyas (onion), salad greens and potato salad without red onions, and ginisa (saute) without onions. Even fast food favorites like pizza and burgers without onion rings. And a myriad of other local dishes sans this most prized ingredient.
You can imagine the near chaos that transpired when onion prices began to rise last December from P220 a kilo that alarmingly skyrocketed to P300, then P500, and early this year, to a staggering P700-800 not only in Metro Manila but even in the provinces. as well!
The outrageously high price makes buying onions even more expensive than paying for your usual cut of meat or chicken and even higher than the minimum wage of P537 a worker takes home to his family daily. To think that onions are considered one of our top crops grown in 22 provinces in the Philippines!
Opinions on what went wrong hugged the news, blaming the spiral in prices on factors as varied as the effects of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, global inflation, hoarding by unscrupulous traders, emerging environmental issues like changing weather patterns, or lack of support for local onion growers.
Solutions were offered, from importing 22,000 metric tons to satisfy the local demand as a momentary relief, to various interventions for farmers like making loans more accessible or even condoning loans, helping in pre-harvest and post-harvest operations like providing farm implements or machinery, subsidizing seeds, pesticides, and fertilizer supplies as well as transportation costs, and installing cold storage facilities for the harvested crop.
Some sectors blame the Bureau of Customs for what they claimed was the unabated smuggling of onions which have become so expensive. Should it not be the opposite that onions have become so expensive because there are not too many smuggled onions to flood the market to make the price cheaper in the first place?
I hate smugglers; that’s one thing for sure. Give me names and evidence, and I assure you I will be blazingly knocking on their doors the next hour to arrest them.
In the meantime, should we not push for the wheels of justice to grind fast instead of exceedingly slow to discourage smuggling?
Should the government allow more importations to bring down the prices of onions and go after hoarders without hurting our local farmers?
Whatever the remedy, what is imperative is to act fast before things get worse unless we all resort to Jain cuisine and completely cut off onions from the Filipino diet. But then, of course, that will never happen.
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Should we not push for the wheels of justice to grind fast instead of exceedingly slow to discourage smuggling?
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Should it not be the opposite that onions have become so expensive because there are not too many smuggled onions to flood the market to make the price cheaper in the first place?