The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) on Friday started fielding its price monitoring teams to assist the Department of Agriculture (DA) in checking the suggested retail prices (SRP) of red onions in public markets in the National Capital Region (NCR).
Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual directed the DTI teams to include red onions among the goods being monitored to ensure that prices of the agricultural products remain affordable for consumers especially during the holiday season.
“DTI is calling on sellers to keep their prices within the suggested retail prices. We are exerting every effort to ensure that prices of basic necessities and prime commodities are within the reach of Filipino consumers,” Pascual said.
He added that monitoring and inspection of onion prices will be a nationwide effort and will continue until next year.
The DTI price monitoring for red onion is in response to the call of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and DA Circular No. 12 which places an SRP of P250 per kilogram of red onions in the markets.
The DA circular on the SRP on red onions will be in effect until the first week of January 2023.