MANILA — The Department of Agriculture (DA) defended its decision to postpone the implementation of the P150 suggested retail price (SRP) for red onions and P140 for white onions, saying it was just an internal agreement.
Aside from this, DA Assistant Secretary and deputy spokesman Rex Estoperez said the announcement on the imposition of an SRP for onions was premature since the official memorandum order was not yet issued by Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban.
“The question is why was it (SRP) leaked? It was announced even without the signature of the senior undersecretary,” Estoperez said.
Jayson Cainglet, executive director of the farmers’ group Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura, questioned the motive behind the delay in enforcing the SRP, saying there might be a bigger reason for this move.
The SRP was supposed to take effect on May 22 – following an agreement during a consultation by the DA with various stakeholders on May 19 – to address the increase in the retail prices of onions, which reached as high as P200 per kilo months after the peak harvest.
“The senior undersecretary wants further review of the cost structure for the SRP as based on the computation, the cost of production is only P28 (per kilo), the margin is P62, that’s P90. If they are earning P90, that’s 121 percent profit,” Estoperez claimed.
He said that during consultation, cold storage operators also admitted that during the peak harvest, the farmgate price of onions was only at P55 per kilo.
“That’s why we need to study further the cost structure so that when we implement the SRP, we should be ready. We don’t want a similar experience as last February (2023) where we imposed SRP (on imported onions) but there was no compliance,” he added.
The DA implemented a P250 per kilo SRP in December 2022 but the price of onions skyrocketed to P720 per kilo amid a shortage in supply. In February 2023, the agency also imposed a P125 SRP on imported onions and failed to get compliance from traders and retailers.
According to Estoperez, unscrupulous traders can be charged with Republic Act 7581 or The Price Act for profiteering and price manipulation.
But the DA monitoring in Metro Manila markets on Friday showed that the bulb was sold at P190 per kilo, or P10 lower than in previous days.
The retail price of P190 per kilo was recorded at Marikina Public Market.
