The Department of Agriculture is stepping into the onion market in Occidental Mindoro to prevent a potential price collapse during the peak harvest season. State-run Food Terminal Inc. is preparing to buy onions directly from farmers and store them in cold storage facilities.
The intervention comes as harvest volumes are expected to surge between March and April, when farmgate prices typically fall due to oversupply and limited storage capacity.
“With this intervention, we expect to limit the role of middlemen in determining onion prices and help growers obtain better prices for their produce,” said Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., who directed the FTI to expand the onion-buying initiative started in Nueva Ecija.
The FTI procured 10,000 bags of red onions in Nueva Ecija beginning March 6, with plans to buy about 3,000 bags daily.
FTI executives recently inspected the WBI Cold Storage facility in the province, which can hold up to 380,000 bags of onions, as part of preparations for the procurement program.
“The directive of the president and the secretary is to advance food security in the country and ensure that food remains affordable and accessible to all Filipinos,” said FTI president Joseph Lo. “In support of this, the role of the FTI is to strengthen market linkages across the food value chain—from farmers to consumers.”
The facility is set to start operations March 10, allowing the FTI to begin purchasing onions from farmers by the third week of March, ahead of the peak harvest. The government hopes to absorb part of the harvest to cushion farmers from sharp price swings.
Separately, provincial officials held a consultative meeting with onion farmers and traders to draft policies for a more transparent trading system. These include requiring traders to register to prevent unlicensed buyers from operating.
