A LAW with stiffer penalties against onion smugglers and traders who manipulate prices as well as provisions to ensure implementation is needed, a farmers’ group said.
“The Customs bureau catches a lot of smuggled goods as well as cases of hoarding and price manipulation, but no one gets punished,” Jayson H. Cainglet, executive director of the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG), said via phone call.
He also called on the Bureau of Internal Revenue to review importers applying for accreditation to catch those involved in smuggling.
Mr. Cainglet, a resource person of the House agriculture and food committee’s ongoing investigation on the alleged manipulation of onion prices, noted how the invited traders, importers and cold storage officials simply kept denying that they knew one another.
“They know each other… same incorporators, same network. They control the production and supply of onions,” he said in Filipino.
He said the House’s investigation is a “validation of what the industry players call a cartel-like behavior.”
Marikina Rep. Stella Luz A. Quimbo said during one of the committee hearings that the market is dominated by a few key players that take control over the movement of local onions.
“Cold storage facilities would be reserved for a few people or groups. Traders hoard from onion farmers as a low price because of the low farmgate price. Because of the low price of imported onions and with the lack of cold storage facilities, traders ‘bully’ farmers to sell their onions at a low price, saying their onions will rot if they refuse to sell it,” she said.
Ms. Quimbo questioned why onion prices peaked at P600 late last year despite a modest gap between demand and supply.
Data from the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Plant and Industry showed the demand for red onions in 2022 was 363,937 metric tons while supply was at 338,354 metric tons.
Mr. Cainglet said the dominance of traders reflects the absence of government support in the production and selling of agricultural goods.
“Value chain players should be lessened because it adds a burden to the farmers,” Mr. Cainglet said. “Why not invest in post-harvest [facilities like] cold storage, marketing…so farmers can deliver their own produce and not depend on traders?” — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz
