MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine government is importing 16,000 metric tons (MT) of yellow onions until yearend after stocks got depleted, Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said on Wednesday, August 28.

The agriculture secretary said he has approved a memorandum from the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) which said that the remaining 3,296.50 MT of yellow onions would only last until August 25 or last Sunday.

“Actually, I approved that on Monday,” said Tiu Laurel at the sidelines of a livestock event on Wednesday, referring to the memorandum.

“I approved the import of white or yellow onions because the stocks are already depleted. But we still have a lot of red onions.”

Imports will arrive by batches every two weeks. The first batch is set to arrive by the end of this week or early next week, Tiu Laurel said. The government expects demand to increase due to the holiday season.

The BPI said it will ensure that the last batch of imports will arrive by end of December so as not to hurt local producers who will start their harvest season by January.

Meanwhile, the available stock of 135,551.40 MT of red onions is estimated to last until March 2025, according to the BPI memorandum dated August 14.

The DA has extended an import ban on red onions until August.

As of Tuesday, August 27, local white onions sold for P80 to P150 per kilo while local red onions sold for P70 to P150 per kilo.

Last year, the Marcos administration got flak for a meteoric rise in onion prices in late 2022 and early 2023 due partly to miscalculations in demand and supply, late imports, smuggling, and a lack of crucial cold storage facilities. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was then concurrently head of the DA. – Rappler.com

Quotes translated to English for brevity.