Soaring prices force Philippines to plan import of onions as inflation makes vegetable costlier than beef
- The proposed purchase of 22,000 tonnes of onions – one of the drivers of inflation – ‘will be good for a month’, an agriculture official said
- Onions are currently selling for three times the price of chicken in the Philippines and are around 25 per cent costlier than beef, by weight
The proposed purchase “will be good for a month and to pull down prices,” Estoperez said. “We can’t sit idly because one of the drivers of inflation is the price of onions.”
The purchase would be a “temporary solution” and there are no further plans to import for now, he said. The Southeast Asian nation consumes around 17,000 tons of onions a month, Estoperez said.
The agriculture department expects the planned imports, once approved, would arrive no later than the first week of February, he said.
Red onions were selling for as much as 650 pesos (US$11.68) a kilogram in the Philippines and the white variety was priced as high as 600 pesos, about three times the price of chicken and around 25 per cent costlier than beef, based on the retail prices of farm commodities monitored by the agriculture department as of January 5.
Onion is a key ingredient in Filipino cuisine with most households using it along with garlic. The price spike has hit consumers particularly hard during the year-end holidays with food taking centerstage in many gatherings, prompting more than a few to air their rants on social media.