By late 2022, the price of

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

and

white onion White onion or '' Allium cepa'' (“sweet onion”) are a cultivar of dry onion which have a distinct light and mild flavour profile. Much like red onions, they have a high sugar and low sulphur content, and thus have a relatively short shelf li ...

s in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

increased significantly, reaching an all-time high in December at per kilogram and leading people to

smuggle Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. More broadly, soc ...

the

commodity In economics, a commodity is an economic goods, good, usually a resource, that specifically has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the Market (economics), market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to w ...

into the country.

Background

Along with

garlic Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plants in the genus '' Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chives, Welsh onion, and Chinese onion. Garlic is native to central and south Asia, str ...

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classifie ...

is a staple in

Filipino cuisine Filipino cuisine is composed of the cuisines of more than a hundred distinct Ethnic groups in the Philippines, ethnolinguistic groups found throughout the Philippines, Philippine archipelago. A majority of mainstream Filipino dishes that comp ...

, being used as a base in many dishes. It is a seasonal crop, growing between the rainy months of September and December. Meanwhile, its

harvest Harvesting is the process of collecting plants, animals, or fish (as well as fungi) as food, especially the process of gathering mature crops, and "the harvest" also refers to the collected crops. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulses fo ...

season begins as early as December and ends in June. The Philippines consumes an average of 17,000 metric tons of onion per month. In August 2022, the country was predicted to experience a shortage of onion and garlic. The price of

red onion Red onions (also known as purple or blue onions in some mainland European countries) are cultivars of the onion ('' Allium cepa''), and have purplish-red skin and white flesh tinged with red. They are most commonly used in cooking, but the skin ...

in 2021 ranged between and .

Causes

The

Department of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

's failure to adequately project

supply and demand In microeconomics, supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a Market (economics), market. It postulates that, Ceteris_paribus#Applications, holding all else equal, the unit price for a particular Good (economics), good ...

for onions resulted to a delay in imports, leading to a shortage.

Response

In January 2023, President

Bongbong Marcos Ferdinand "Bongbong" Romualdez Marcos Jr. (, , ; born September 13, 1957), commonly referred to by the initials BBM or PBBM, is a Filipino politician who has served as the 17th president of the Philippines since 2022. He is the second child ...

, who was also serving concurrently as

Secretary of Agriculture The United States secretary of agriculture is the head of the United States Department of Agriculture. The position carries similar responsibilities to those of agriculture ministers in other governments The department includes several organiz ...

, approved the importation of 21,060 tons of onion. The first shipments began to arrive on January 23. The agriculture department said the importation, albeit a "temporary solution", would help decrease inflation in the country and stabilize the price of the vegetable.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2022-2023 Philippine onion crisis onion crisis onion crisis Bongbong Marcos administration controversies Political scandals in the Philippines Economic history of the Philippines Onions Food politics 2023 in economic history 2022 in economic history History of agriculture Inflation

Background

Causes

Response

See also

References