Crying time again? Romualdez confirms rise in price of onions

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

of the House of

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W ith this, Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez ordered a renewed campaign to bring down the price of onions in the market. He noted that the monitoring of the House Committee on Agriculture and Food has shown that the price of onions in the market is starting to rise again from P90 to P180 per kilo recently.

Onion hoarders and price manipulators are starting to become active again. We will nip this problem in the bud. We will not allow its price to rise beyond the reach of ordinary Filipinos,” the House leader vowed.

Romualdez said that he has asked officials of the Bureau of Plant and Industry (BPI) to report to his office so they can explain to him and other House leaders why hoarders are able to manipulate the price of onions once again.

He explained that onion farmers had already sold their harvest to wholesalers, yet the supply remained scarce, leading to a higher price of onions. According to the report we received, the farmers have already sold their harvest. This means that they are already in cold storage and are only being held back from release to the market to increase the price. This is the modus operandi discovered by the House Committee [on Agriculture], which is why we stopped it then,” he added. “ If they don’t release their products, the government might be forced to import onions. The farmers will not be affected because they no longer have their products. The hoarders and price manipulators are sure to lose if there is importation,” Romualdez added.

Shift

MEANWHILE , as the damage to the agriculture and fisheries sectors caused by typhoon “Egay” reached P1.53 billion, affecting 99,272 farmers and fisherfolk in eight regions as of July 30, House Committee on Labor and Employment chairman Fidel Nograles underscored the need to shift to climate-resilient agriculture and fisheries to avoid the crippling effects of disasters on the livelihood of farmers and fisherfolk.

“ We need to prioritize the shift to agriculture and fisheries that can cope with the harsher effects of climate change. The sooner we do this, the sooner we can help our farmers and fisherfolk escape the ever-deepening mire of poverty,” Nograles said.

T he lawmaker bemoaned that the livelihoods of farmers and fishermen are endangered whenever typhoons occur.

H e stressed that more needs to be done besides giving aid after typhoons. Until we transform our systems of agriculture and fisheries, our farmers and fishermen will be dependent on aid that will never be enough to recoup their losses,” he said.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) also reported the loss of at least 66.075 metric tons (MT) of produce, including rice, corn, highvalue crops, livestock and poultry, and fisheries, in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Ilocos region (Region 1), Cagayan Valley (Region 2), Central Luzon (Region 3), Calabarzon (Region 4), Mimaropa (Region 4-A), Western Visayas (Region 6), and Caraga (Region 13). A side from crop seeds, drugs and biologics for livestock and poultry, and fish fingerlings, the DA said that farmers and fisherfolk may also avail of the P25,000 loan under the Survival and Recovery Loan Program from the Agricultural Credit Policy Council.