(TO UPDATE) AGRICULTURE Undersecretary Kristine Evangelista said Wednesday that traders have agreed to sell red onions at a wholesale price of P150 per kilo, allowing retailers to sell the product at P170 per kilo, which is the recommended retail price (SRP).
“We met with the distributors and retailers last Friday during the stakeholder engagement where the distributors agreed to lower the wholesale price of red onions to P150 per kilo,” Evangelista said.
On October 7, 2022, Senior Undersecretary of Agriculture Domingo Panganiban signed Administrative Circular 9 implementing the SRP of P170 per kilo of red onions.
“Traders will be selling P150 per kilo in markets to ensure retailers are compliant with the SRP of P170,” Evangelista said.
On Wednesday, Evangelista inspected Kamuning Market in Quezon City to verify retailers’ compliance with the SRP.
The retail price of red onions was between P170 and P250 per kilo on Thursday, based on Department of Agriculture (DA) surveillance data.
Evangelista said the DA hired Market Master to monitor vendors’ compliance with the SRP.
“Market masters and the enforcement team will ask retailers to explain their non-compliance with the SRP,” she said.
Evangelista reported that shipments of vegetables from trading posts to markets in Metro Manila have decreased.
“We noticed that the flow of vegetables from trading posts to markets in Metro Manila has decreased,” Evangelista said, noting that prosecutors are still determining whether the decrease is due to the devastation caused by Super Typhoon Karding. was due.
“What we’re trying to do now is find more vegetable sources from other regions to increase supply in Metro Manila. This will also affect prices in the local market,” she said, noting that the price of vegetables has gone up doesn’t necessarily mean that there has been a shortage of production.
“It’s possible that the production doesn’t reach the trading posts. There is a need to carry out a food mobilization where agricultural products are delivered to the different regions in Metro Manila,” Evangelista said.
