PHL onion growers lose P75M to illegal smuggling

Over P75 million in potential revenues were lost in the last three weeks because of smuggled onions, according to an onion growers' group. “We cannot compete with smuggled onions. Our ex-warehouse cost is almost P40 per kilo and we sell wholesale at P46 per kilo," said Rodolfo Niones, spokesperson of the Samahan ng mga Katipunan ng Magsisibuyas ng Nueva Ecija (KASAMNE), in a briefing Tuesday at the Agriculture Department in Quezon City. The illegal onions that entered the country mid-June have driven prices to as low as P23 per kilo for yellow granex onions and P25 per kilo for red creole onions in Divisoria. KASAMNE is a group of 10 farmer cooperatives in Nueva Ecija, where nearly 65 percent of the country’s onions are produced. Nearly 540 metric tons (MT) of onions from China and India arrived in the Philippines since last month, and passed through the Port of Manila, the Manila International Container Port and through ports in Cebu, Davao and Cagayan de Oro, the group alleged. The Agriculture Department has not issued any import permit for onion since 2010 to help farmers recover from consecutive years of production losses. Last year, most onion farmers went bankrupt when ex-farm prices dropped to P6 per kilo. Excess onions for the PHL “It is harvest season in India. And since they have a lot of surplus production they are illegally shipping excess onions to the Philippines at low prices," Niones said. On Monday, 1,739 bags of locally produced onions have rotted and been discarded, the group said. KASAMNE president Armando de Guzman said that they are asking the national government not only to confiscate smuggled onions but to persecute those who smuggle onions into the country. “From what we heard, the government has not charged those who were responsible for smuggling in onions in the raid conducted last month and even those that were apprehended during previous years," he said. Smuggled onions are easy differentiated from local onions, said the group. Yellow granex onions from China are bigger and have a deeper shade of yellow compared to local granex while Chinese red creole is flatter and bigger than local onions. Onions from India resemble local onions but are nipped or cropped closer to the bulb, according to KASAMNE. — BC/VS, GMA News