Bantay Palengke, an organization of Filipino consumers, today cheered the Department of Agriculture’s imposition of suggested retail prices for onions but warned that it will be hard to implement if price monitoring will only be done in markets.
The DA, farmers groups and other agriculture stakeholders last week agreed on a suggested retail price of P150 per kilo for red onions and P140 a kilo for white onions.
According to Bantay Palengke Convenor Lester Codog, “We welcome the announcement of DA Spokesperson Kristine Evangelista and we are one with them in ensuring that the price of onion will be controlled. However, we suggest that they also take a look at the price being offered by traders to our lowly vendors. We think it will be very difficult to impose price if it means vendors will earn too little or even zero.”
Codog explained that vendors cannot abide by the SRP if middle men will sell onions at a high price and this means measures must be put in place to also ensure that the SRP is implementable on the side of vendors.
He added, “As consumers, we really want prices to go down. But because we also talk to our suking tindera, they inform us that they can’t help but raise prices if traders will not offer lower rates. Trading prices must also be monitored to ensure that onion price will be controlled.”
