The Department of Agriculture understands the predicaments of our farmers in Occidental Mindoro caused by the overproduction of red onion in the province. We knew that the current farmgate price was now down to Php 12-15 from Php 42 last year.
Based on our validation, the area planted has doubled this season due to the high income earned by farmers last year. For 2021, the area planted is 5,715 has. with a production of 78, 448MT. For 2022, area planted was 7,569 has. with an estimated production of 90,828MT, as of April 8, 2022.
The local storage cannot accommodate the big surplus that resulted to stop buying operations of local traders. We recognize the need for more storage space despite the two cold storage facilities that we have granted to two cooperatives in the municipalities of San Jose and Mamburao.
Moreover, about 40 percent of growers are not yet members of cooperatives in their areas; thus, they could not take the opportunity and benefit from the interventions and support services of the Department of Agriculture.
Compounding the problem, the new entrants are still not familiar with good agricultural practices in onion production, harvesting, and post-harvest handling that affected the quality of onions in some areas, resulting in farmers burning damaged or unmarketable harvests, as seen on the news.
Amidst these issues, the Department of Agriculture is doubling its efforts to assist the onion growers, may it be coop members or non-coop members, through the following interventions:
DA-MIMAROPA has already inked an agreement with Royale Cold Storage in Cabuyao, Laguna, to accommodate the procured onion produce of partner cooperatives. Based on-site inspection by our team, we found they have a newly constructed facility with a total capacity of 15,552 pallets that can accommodate a maximum load of 1 metric ton per pallet. Today, our partner cooperatives have already brought 16,000 bags to this facility to date. They are bringing more since this facility can accommodate more 153,000 metric tons.
Our AMAD MiMaRoPa negotiated with Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Services and Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) to seek their assistance to avail a cold storage facility for onions. FTI agreed to provide space but requested more information on volume requirements from our Famers Cooperatives and Associations. Last March 16, 2022, FTI finally set the terms of the storage but allocated only three container vans for our farmers due to their limited space.
On Wednesday, April 14, 2022, AMAD MIMAROPA, with two onion cooperatives from Occidental Mindoro, is scheduled to have a Business-to-Business meeting with WalterMart to explore the possibility of these coops supplying onions to the supermarket chain.
We are also offering our cooperatives to sell their onion produce to our KADIWA space in Las Pinas, Parañaque, and other areas in the south of Metro Manila.
We are also establishing a buying station of onions in our station in Murtha San Jose, and we are sending a post-harvest consultant to oversee the conversion of part of our station as onion storage.
We are now pooling more funds that we can give as grants to our partner coops so that they can procure more and also serve the non-members who are left behind and have also clamored for support. Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Division of DA-MiMAROPA is currently facilitating through Rustom Gonzaga of the Marketing Development Section the PhP200,000.00 fund assistance from Ecological and Agricultural Development Foundation Inc. of Mr. Ramon Uy to be given to SAGUTT MPC of Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro.
Also, this month, there will be a scheduled creation of the Mindoro Allium Commodity Council as a combined initiative of AMAD MiMaRoPa and the Onion commodity sector/clusters in Occidental Mindoro in coordination with the LGUs and other onion stakeholders to assist the government craft policies related to the development of the onion industry value chain.
We will also be filing a formal request to OMECO to fast track the installation of 3 phase transformers to the cold storage we have provided to our partner coops so that these facilities could soon accommodate their farmer members.
We will also promise to continue educating and demonstrating to farmers good agricultural practices in onion production, harvesting, post-harvest handling, and sorting to get a better price for their produce.
Lastly, two (2) units of Cold Storage facilities worth PhP125M each are now on their way under the enterprise development component of the Philippine Rural Development Project. These are to be constructed in Magsaysay, Occidental Mindoro for the Genaro MPC, and one unit in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro for the Watchers MPC, with a combined capacity of 100,000 bags or 2800 metric tons. These are expected to be operational in the 2022-2023 onion cropping season.
At this point, we highly encourage our farmers to be a member of a cooperative in their locality to avail of the cold storage we are providing while the price of onion is still below their production cost of P15-P18 per kilo.
As mandated by the Local Government Code of the Philippines, we also ask the Local Government Units to help us assist the onion growers, especially the individual farmers, to buy their products and organize them to be part of the cooperatives.
The DA is with our onion farmers in this challenging time. We work tirelessly to address all their predicaments as we try to achieve DA’s dream for the Philippine Agriculture of Masaganang Ani at Mataas na Kita.
ANTONIO G. GERUNDIO, CESO III, DPA
Regional Executive Director
