Onion import ban extended until August — DA chief

Agriculture Secretary Francisco  Tiu Laurel Jr. said on Monday that the temporary ban on onion imports would be extended until next month.

In an interview, Laurel said he currently sees no reason to import the said high-value crop.

"We're monitoring everything closely, day-to-day; as of the moment, there is no need to import onions, so I guess we would be extending on a monthly basis,” he said.

The Agri chief however expressed concern about unscrupulous traders who might tighten the release of the crops’ stocks.

“Just a warning; when they tighten that, we will import to stabilize prices,” he added.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) said earlier that the domestic onion inventory could meet local demands until February next year.

As of 21 June, there were almost 162,000 metric tons (MT) of red onion, more than 11,500 MT of yellow onion, and 60 MT of shallots, according to DA spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa.

He added that there is no glut as all harvested onions are currently kept in cold storage.

Following a forecast of oversupply due to the increase in domestic harvest and the delayed arrival of imported onions in the first few weeks of the year, a temporary import ban on onions was implemented in June, which was initially set to end in May but has been extended to July.