STATE-OWNED Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) will buy onions directly from farmers in Occidental Mindoro to prevent a price collapse in the province at the peak of the harvest season, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Monday.
FTI, an attached agency of the DA, said it had previously bought 10,000 bags of red onions in Nueva Ecija and has been purchasing 3,000 bags daily in the province since March 6.
A price collapse, or a drastic drop in the market value of onions, happens when supply far exceeds demand. This often leads to farm-gate prices (the cost farmers charge) plunging to extremely low levels, making harvest unprofitable for farmers.
Onion volumes are expected to surge this month until April, the peak of harvest season. The problem of collapsing farmgate prices of onions is compounded by limited storage capacity.
Buying the crop straight from farmers will absorb a portion of the harvest supply and help stabilize farmgate prices, the DA said.
“With this intervention, we expect to limit the role of middlemen and help growers obtain better prices for their produce,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said.
FTI president Joseph Lo, Occidental Mindoro Provincial Agriculturist Alrizza Zubiri and San Jose Municipal Agriculturist Romel Calisangan
have inspected the WBI Cold Storage in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro, which can hold 380,000 bags of onions.
It will start operations today, March 10, while FTI buys the onions in the third week of March.
“The directive of the president and the (DA) secretary is to advance food security in the country and ensure that food remains affordable and accessible to all Filipinos,” said Lo. “The role of FTI is to strengthen market linkages across the food value chain — from farmers to consumers.”
Occidental Mindoro officials held a consultative meeting with onion farmers and traders for policies and guidelines that would ensure a more transparent onion-trading system in the province.
Also in attendance were representatives from the DA and its High Value Crops Development Program, Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Division, and Bureau of Plant Industry, as well as the Department of Trade and Industry.
Likewise discussed were updates on Occidental Mindoro’s onion industry, and the status and capacity of cold storage facilities in the province.
The meeting concluded with a recommendation to require the registration of onion traders in the province to prevent illicit practices in the market.
The country’s top onion-producing provinces are Nueva Ecija, Occidental Mindoro, Pangasinan, and Ilocos Sur.