Senators sound alarm on possible onion price collapse

SEN. Joseph Victor Ejercito on Thursday warned that rising production costs and declining farm-gate prices may push farmers into losses and put the country’s food security at serious risk. “We cannot neglect our farmers,” Ejercito said. 989789,989793,989791,989782,989784,989779,989792,989785,989772,989775,989776,989783,989781,989777,989778,989794,989796,989773,989780,989786,989774,989787,989790,989771,989795 He cited the sharp drop in farm-gate prices of onions in Nueva Ecija and other producing provinces, even as production costs continue to rise. The Senate deputy majority leader raised this matter during a public hearing of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform held in Nueva Ecija. Sen. Francis Pangilinan, the panel chairman, said the inquiry looked into the “systemic collapse” of onion farmgate prices in Occidental Mindoro and Nueva Ecija. Ejercito said that the situation is no longer a simple issue of supply and demand. “This is no longer just a matter of price fluctuations. This is a failure of the system. This is [government] negligence.” Sen. Panfilo Lacson also questioned the country’s onion importation policy, saying that continued importation during local harvest could harm farmers. The Senate president pro tempore cited data suggesting that the Philippines may already be beyond onion self-sufficiency. He presented the Philippine Onion Industry Road Map 2021-2025. “The Philippines reportedly needs to increase onion production from 229,539 metric tons to 279,270 metric tons in order to achieve self-sufficiency by 2025,” said Lacson in Filipino. He said data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that the national onion harvest in 2024 had reached 264,000. “So, the question is, how much was harvested in 2025?” he asked. Lacson learned a harvest of 279,000 metric tons of onion is self-sufficient. “And we’ve even exceeded that. So why did we import so much — 94,000 metric tons in total in 2025? Our shortfall wasn’t even close to 94,000 metric tons,” he said. “Why are we importing? It’s to kill our farmers, there’s no other reason,” Lacson said. Ejercito also raised concern over the continued influx of imported onions, even during peak harvest season, which he said undermines local producers. He questioned the government’s importation strategy, warning that poorly timed imports worsen the situation. Ejercito said the issue “goes beyond market fluctuations and points to structural problems that must be immediately addressed.” Lacson said that local farmers are being harmed by importers who deliberately time shipments to coincide with the local harvest, undercutting the prices of homegrown onions. Pangilinan, panel chairman, raised concerns over the continued importation of onion during the local harvest season. He noted that farmers are already struggling with rising fuel and logistics costs resulting from the Middle East war. He said onion import clearances remained valid during the local harvest period despite policies intended to prevent overlap with domestic production. “It is questionable, especially since the policy is very clear that imports should not overlap with the harvest season of our local farmers,” Pangilinan said in Filipino. He noted that imported onions occupying cold storage facilities leave little room for local harvests, forcing farmers to sell their products at a lower cost. “When this happens, you cannot help but wonder whether our farmers are being deliberately denied access to cold storage while imported onions continue to enter the market and farmgate prices keep falling,” Pangilinan said.

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