Onion import clearances frozen as harvest approaches peak

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said it suspended the issuance of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances (SPSIC) for red onions as the domestic harvest approaches its peak.

“We have not been  issuing any import permits or SPSIC since the end of January,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr. told BusinessWorld via Viber.

Mr. Laurel said the DA typically suspends the issuance of import clearances ahead of the local harvest season. The red onion harvest in the Philippines usually begins in January and peaks in March.

Mr. Laurel said most of the red onions approved for import have already arrived, with only a few shipments expected.

“Almost all shipments have arrived, and most of them have actually (been sold). There are only a few containers arriving now, in insignificant quantities, mainly because they were delayed at transshipment points,” Mr. Laurel said.

He said the DA will resume the issuance of import clearances by around September.

An industry official said the suspension came too late to shield farmers from price disruption.

“It should have started as early as December… If imports are still coming in until February, that becomes a pretext to dump imports during the harvest period to force down farmgate prices and undercut farmers,” Jayson H. Cainglet, executive director of the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura, told BusinessWorld via Viber.

The Philippine Statistics Authority reported that the farmgate price of domestic red onion dropped 28.42% to P43.97 per kilo in February from P61.43 a year earlier.

Mr. Cainglet said the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) should have already estimated harvest volumes by July to help determine the appropriate level of imports.

The DA, however, has said that the supply of imported red onions is not sufficient to drive down farmgate prices, contrary to farmers’ claims.

“The numbers show that current stocks from imports are not overwhelming the market but merely plugging a supply gap,” Mr. Laurel said last week.

The BPI estimated that the supply of imported red onion, including the remaining expected shipments, will likely last only until March 6, just as the domestic harvest begins to peak.

The DA earlier said it will probe the continued decline in farmgate prices despite the limited imported supply.

Meanwhile, Mr. Cainglet said the DA needs to address structural challenges in the onion industry, including inadequate post-harvest facilities, high intermediary margins as the product passes from farmgate to retail, and elevated logistics costs.

“Onions should actually be the easiest to monitor because they are harvested only once a year and the major production hubs are already identified,” he added. — Vonn Andrei E. Villamiel