FTI to start sourcing onions from Occidental Mindoro

THE DEPARTMENT of Agriculture (DA) said Food Terminal, Inc. (FTI) will start sourcing onions directly from farmers in Occidental Mindoro by the third week of March, citing the need to mitigate any possible drop in farmgate prices during the peak of the harvest.

“The intervention comes as harvest volumes are expected to surge starting March until April, a period when farmgate prices typically fall sharply due to oversupply and limited storage capacity,” the DA said in a statement on Monday.

The DA said FTI executives inspected a cold storage facility in San Jose, which can store up to 380,000 bags of onions, in preparation for the procurement program in the province.

The DA said the cold storage facility is scheduled to begin operations on March 10, ahead of FTI’s planned purchases.

Occidental Mindoro is one of the top onion producers with output of 7,177 metric tons in 2025, equivalent to 25.78% of the national total.

“We expect to limit the role of middlemen in determining onion prices and help growers obtain better prices for their produce,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr. was quoted as saying in a statement.

The DA said FTI procured 10,000 bags of red onion in Nueva Ecija and has targeted daily purchases of around 3,000 bags starting March 6. — Vonn Andrei E. Villamiel