DA eyes to set red onion SRP to ₧250 by Dec. 30

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) has confirmed that it is eyeing to set the suggested retail price (SRP) of red onions at P250 per kilogram before the year ends.

Agriculture Assistant Secretary Kristine Evangelista said the agency is targeting to implement the SRP on December 30, 2022. She made this remark a day after the agency held a meeting with stakeholders.

“Based on our meeting with the stakeholders yesterday [Wednesday], our recommendation was to implement an SRP of P250 per kilo. This will be effective until the first week of January. After that, we will meet again since there will be expected harvest so we will look into how to bring the cost even lower,” Evangelista said, partly in Filipino.

The DA official admitted that the farm-gate price is contributing to the rise in prices of red onions in wet markets.

“What we are seeing with the price monitoring is the increase in prices of red onions is almost P50 every day in the wet markets, so we had to check what’s causing such. We found out that what’s fluctuating is the farm-gate price,” Evangelista said.

“So for this instance, it’s not the layers of traders that’s causing the problem, but the farm-gate price which is increasing. That’s why we have to coordinate with our producers,” she added.

Evangelista said that farmgate price reached P460, adding that this is the reason behind prices of red onion in wet markets spiking up to around P600 to P720 per kilo.

The DA said farmers could already gain profit from the P250 per kilo SRP of red onions since the agency has already “factored in” the different costs including transport cost in the “revised cost structure.”

“Production cost in a normal situation is at around P50 normally but there should be room for fuel cost, fertilizer cost, and of course the losses of the farmers due to typhoons,” Evangelista explained.

“So with P250 po na retail price, if ang ating magsasaka will sell it at P170, P190, meron na po sila mga margin dyan na mas maganda compared sa mga dating margin na tinitingnan na P10 lang at ang bulk ng kita ay nasa biyahero,” she added.

Evangelista also said onions will be sold for P170 per kilo in Kadiwa centers. She added that the Kadiwa outlets are present in Mandaluyong, Manila, Makati, Quezon City and Valenzuela.

Aside from increasing production, Evangelista said the agency’s role is to ensure affordability of agricultural commodities.

She said importation may always be an option but not in this instance since the timing of harvest will overlap with the time of importing the commodity.

“We will put our confidence sa ating local producers