BAYAMBANG—After smuggling has finally been dealt with, onion farmers in this town, the number one producer of both the red and white variety in Region 1, are now facing a different bane: overproduction, which has driven prices down to as low as P12 per kilo from as much as P50 last year.

Mayor Ricardo Camacho told local newsmen the volume of production from most of the 77 barangays covering 650 to 700 hectares of onion farms has been higher than market demand.

“Production doubled this year and farmers who used to plant corn diverted their crops to onions,” Camacho said.

Mercedes Peralta, municipal agriculturist, said farmers were enticed to shift to onions because of the higher return on investment in the past.

This resulted in overproduction with as many as 1,000 onion farmers planting and harvesting at the same time.

Harvest season for onions is March and April.

Onion prices saw their lowest in 2000 at P5 per kilo in this town.

Farmers are now keeping some of their harvest in warehouses, with onions having a storage life of up to 10 months, waiting for prices to improve.

SMUGGLING

Camacho said farmers have just heaved a sigh of relief after smuggling of onions had been addressed, owing mostly to the unrelenting campaign of the Pangasinan-based Abono party-list led by Engr. Rosendo So.

For his part, So acknowledged during the recent Farmers’ Day celebration here the support of former 5th District Rep. Mark Cojuangco in the campaign against smuggling of agricultural products, including onions.

He pointed out that there is no need to import red onions with local production reaching 180 million kilos while demand is only 142 million kilos. White onion production, on the other hand, was 25 million kilos while demand was 36 million kilos.—Tita Roces

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