The Department of Agriculture (DA) hesitates in imposing a proposed suggested retail price or SRP for the varieties of onions now selling in markets across the country.
Rex Estoperez, DA spokesperson, on Wednesday said senior undersecretary Domingo Panganiban has held off adopting an SRP of P140 per kilo of white onion and P150 per kilo for the red variety on misgivings about the soundness of the cost structure presented to authorities by proponents.
For this reason, the planned imposition of an SRP for onions is held off indefinitely for when the agency completes its evaluation of an acceptable cost structure.
“We want to further study the cost structure as we are not convinced of the cost structure that was presented,” Estoperez told reporters.
He said there are now coordination meetings with the Department of Trade and Industry and come up with something they can do while waiting for the SRP and gave assurance of continued monitoring and inspection of onion cold storages in the meantime.
“Firstly, we saw that most lessees of cold storage are farmer-traders. What we are saying is let’s cooperate because if you are a farmer-trade, there was a time that you were a farmer and we protected you. Now that you are a trader, which is another role, you should also cooperate and help,” Estoperez explained.
The spokesperson reiterated that Panganiban is not convinced in releasing another SRP for onions without a strong basis to avoid past experience when the government issued one and commodities prices did not stabilize as expected.
Nevertheless, the agency remains open to the idea of adding supply should the SRP prove unsuccessful in lowering the retail cost of onions.
Based on DA monitoring of public markets in the National Capital Region, onions retail from a range of P100 to P200 per kilo for local red onion and from P150 to P200 per kilo for local white onion.
