Agri party-list Rep. Wilbert Lee on Sunday said the Department of Agriculture (DA) must implement a more comprehensive supply monitoring of agricultural products to avoid fluctuating prices of farm products.
Lee was reacting to Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr.’s order on the suspension of onion imports in a bid to control declining prices.
“If last year, our problem was the high prices of onions, now our problem is, the price of onions is very much cheap,” he said.
“We pity our local farmers because they are losing so much. The government should intensify supply monitoring,” he said.
According to the Department of Agriculture, farm gate prices of onion have fallen to P50 to P70 per kilo due to the increased supply.
Prices could further drop next month when more onions are harvested.
Such is a complete opposite to the situation in December 2022 when onion prices skyrocketed to a record high P720 a kilo due to dwindling supply.
“Come to think of it, the DA is the one telling other areas in Nueva Ecija that prices of onions have dropped to P20 per kilo. Let us not wait for our farmers to throw away their harvest to cut their losses because it would be cheaper for them to do so,” Lee said.
Nueva Ecija produces 97 percent of onions in Luzon which accounts for 65 percent to the country’s onion supply.
“To be a winner, monitoring and projection must be systematic, especially that we have El Niño,” Lee said.
