FTI to start stocking onions to prevent price collapse
State-run Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) will begin purchasing onions from farmers in Occidental Mindoro by the third week of March to prevent a potential price collapse at the peak of harvest season.
“With this intervention, we expect to limit the role of middlemen in determining onion prices and help growers obtain better prices for their produce,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said in a statement on Monday.
FTI executives have inspected the WBI Cold Storage facility at San Jose town in Occidental Mindoro, which is one of the country’s key onion-producing areas, in preparation for the move.
The cold storage facility, which can store up to 380,000 bags of onions, is scheduled to begin operations on March 10.
Provincial authorities also held a consultative meeting with onion farmers and traders in the area to come up with relevant policies for a more transparent onion trading system in Occidental Mindoro.
While the buying price has yet to be announced, FTI president and CEO Joseph Rudolph Lo previously said they would purchase onions at reasonable prices to maintain the profitability of planting onions.
The FTI staged the market intervention as harvest volumes are expected to surge starting in March until April, around a time when farm-gate prices usually decline due to oversupply and limited storage capacity.
Farm-gate prices refer to the price received by farmers for selling their produce at the farm level, which is largely influenced by traders.
Broader strategy
According to the Department of Agriculture, the government seeks to absorb a portion of the local harvest supply and stabilize farm-gate prices by purchasing onions and keeping those in cold storage facilities.
“The procurement effort also forms part of a broader strategy to improve market stability and farmer income while ensuring a steady supply of onions in the market,” it added.
