The Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. said the government needs to invest in proper storage to ensure sufficient stocks of food commodities during the Yuletide season when demand historically goes higher.

In an interview with reporters, PCAFI president Danilo Fausto said people's spending doubled, or even tripled, during the holiday festivities. Thus, demand for all commodity products increases.

Fausto said the government needs to prepare ahead for occasions when demand is high to protect consumers from price spikes.

"During the Christmas season, purchases double, triple, demand because of the propensity to consume and purchasing power increases. The demand increases for all commodity products. That's the time that you have to prepare for it, you prepare it for a year," Fausto told reporters.

"For example, onions. We talked about 280,000 (metric tons) is supposed to be estimated to reach the sufficiency level. But if we import onions during the holiday season, it's already late. We failed to import something like 40,000 to 50,000 MT so we are short of supply," he said.

The prices of onion, a much-needed commodity in Filipino households, have been on an unprecedented hike.

Recently, the Department of Agriculture asserted its plan of selling government-seized onions at Kadiwa Stores if found in compliance with phytosanitary import requirements. Apart from this, the DA is also planning to import onions to lower the high market prices.

However, Senator Imee Marcos, earlier this month warned that importing onions during the year-end local onion harvest in December will affect local producers in almost eight provinces.

Marcos noted an expected yield of 5,537.3 MT of red onions in December, out of the total expected harvest of 12,837.9 MT until February next year.