In early January, the Philippine Department of Agriculture announced that it would import 22,000 tonnes of onions by March to meet the country’s needs and try to readjust their price, which has risen disproportionately in recent weeks. The onion is one of the most used ingredients in the local cuisine, which is heavily influenced by the Spanish influence due to more than three centuries of colonization, and is often used together with garlic for the preparation of various typical dishes. But now the price of onions per kilo has risen so much that it has surpassed that of meat.
To give a concrete example, in some markets in Manila, the Philippine capital, on Monday 9 January both white and red onions were priced at 600 pesos per kilo, the equivalent of 10 euros: about three times the price of chicken and up to 50 percent more than pork or beef, according to estimates by an agency that monitors fluctuating prices in city-area markets.
Currently the price of a kilo of onions – which in Italy generally costs between 50 cents and 2.50 euros – is even higher than the daily minimum wage of a Filipino person, just over 9 euros.
The Philippines has always imported onions, both because they eat more of them than those produced in the area, and because, due to the non-ideal climatic conditions, those grown in the country do not have a good yield. Data from the Philippine Department of Agriculture say that the average monthly requirement of onions in the country is about 17,000 tons: with the large increase in prices, however, people have stopped buying them and some restaurateurs have stopped serving them, while others are looking for ingredients alternatives, such as a native variety of onion (lasona) which, however, is much smaller and has a different flavour.
According to ING bank economist Nicholas Mapa, who works in Manila, the recent rise in prices depends on at least two factors: first, it is linked to the damage caused to crops by typhoons that affected various parts of the Philippines between August and September, and then it is also affected by the delay in the scheduling of imports. In general, the situation was worsened by the increase in inflation on a global level, both due to causes linked to the consequences of the war in Ukraine on the agricultural sector and due to slowdowns in the supply chain.
Some critics also attribute the increase in onion prices to the mismanagement of the current government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who took office last June. Marcos Jr. had wanted for himself the role of head of the Department of Agriculture with the aim of stabilizing the situation of the food supply in the country: however, some argue that the president is too busy thinking about other issues and has not acted efficiently to manage food safety issues. Then there are those who suspect that there may be speculation behind the price increase.
Mapa argues that onions are just the latest food item at the heart of the country’s price hike. “First there was pork, then fish, and then sugar. Now it’s the turn of the onions. And it looks like it will soon be chicken and eggs,” Mapa said, linking his prediction to high animal feed prices and various outbreaks of bird flu. However, the problem of rising onion prices has also been observed in other countries. According to official data, for example, between December and January the price of onions in Brazil increased by 130 percent: this is due to both the reduction of land dedicated to the cultivation of onions and higher production costs due to the increase in the price of fertilizers and pesticides.
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