Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III yesterday said a country with a huge production of onions is the “Puppet Master” directing the Philippine government on onion importation.
He believes there’s foreign intervention in the current decisions and policies of the government on the importation of onions and other agricultural products.
Pimentel said these decisions and policies are burdening local farmers while favoring importers of onions and big traders. He particularly cited the government’s plan to import onions, which according to local onion farmers will “kill” them.
Local onion farmers lamented that they cannot compete with imported onions which are being sold at P60 per kilo while they sell them at P100 per kilo to keep their sector alive.
The imported onions, Pimentel said, are set to arrive in the country in time for the harvest season of our locally-grown onions. He also noted that even cold storage facilities have been reserved for the imported onions and those from traders.
“This is also being done with our other agricultural products such that the industry no longer become productive,” he said.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Sunday said the government had no choice but to import thousands of tons of onions to bring down local prices, given the gap between local production and demand.
But for the long term, the President said his administration is looking for ways to increase the production of onions and other agricultural products to avoid having to import them, as he discussed his plans to combat the smuggling of farm products with reporters on his flight to Switzerland for the World Economic Forum.
“Given the production and demand we have in the Philippines, it’s impossible to avoid imports. We’ve tried to get [seized] products from smuggling, but the need was still not met. We had no choice but to import, so that’s what we’re doing,” Mr. Marcos said.
“We have to go back to the onion growers and help them so we can have enough production. That’s where we got into trouble. We got so used to importing that we didn’t address the production side,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino.