Group urges govt to study carefully SRP scheme for onions

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) should see to it that the suggested retail price (SRP) scheme for onions will not unduly burden vendors in wet markets, according to a consumer group.

Bantay Palengke said the onion SRP may be difficult to implement particularly if price monitoring will only be done in wet markets.

“We welcome the announcement of DA Spokesperson Kristine Evangelista and we are one with them in ensuring that the price of onion will be controlled. However, we suggest that they also take a look at the price being offered by traders to our lowly vendors,” Bantay Palengke Convenor Lester Codog said in a statement on Wednesday.

“We think it will be very difficult to impose price if it means vendors will earn too little or even zero.”

The DA, farmers groups and other agriculture stakeholders last week agreed on a suggested retail price of P150 per kilo for red onions and P140 per kilo for white onions.

Codog said vendors would be hard pressed to comply with the SRP if middlemen will sell onions at a very high price.

“As consumers, we really want prices to go down. But because we also talk to our suking tindera, they inform us that they can’t help but raise prices if traders will not offer lower rates,” he said. “Trading prices must also be monitored to ensure that onion price will be controlled.”

Earlier, House Speaker Martin Romualdez has cautioned the DA on its plan to impose the onion SRP.

“Extreme care should be taken to ensure that in the imposition of the SRP, the interest of stakeholders such as the consumers, the traders, the market vendors, and especially our onion farmers are suitably protected,” Romualdez said.

The SRP is expected to protect customers from “unconscionably high prices” during market uptrends.

Romualdez also said ending cartels will stop price manipulation and ensure stable prices of commodities like onion.

“As the hearings of the House Committee on Agriculture and Food have indicated, dismantling the onion cartel is a key element in ensuring the stable price of this commodity. Unless we destroy this cartel, this problem will haunt us again and again in the future.”