Holiday memes

For the first time in so many years, something finally beat the Jose Mari Chan Christmas memes.

You’ll probably remember that since the pandemic started and as soon as the “ber” months arrived, the smiling face of the famous singer-songwriter reminding everyone that is about to sing his Christmas songs dominated social media.

This Christmas season, however, Filipinos were captivated with another popular meme. The “onion” memes.

One meme would say that posting a picture of one eating French onion soup would be an ostentatious display of wealth. There was another that showed the price of beef steak, or bistek in Tagalog, as four times cheaper without onions.

On New Year’s eve, I saw a post of a basket not of 12 or sometimes 13 round-shaped fruits for luck, but of onions.

Filipinos, however, did not invent onion memes.

Back in 2019, the Times of India reported that #onionmemes started trending on India’s social media after onion prices rose due to the damage to crops caused by winter rainfall.

Instead of gold and diamond, one meme showed a man giving his bride an onion garland for their wedding. Another suggested that if one wants to go to the most expensive place for their honeymoon, one should go see an onion storage warehouse.

I went to a supermarket one time and was shocked to see that the price of three red onions was P300, and so someone at the store suggested that onion powder would be cheaper.

The Department of Agriculture has just admitted that onion prices are out of control and that another importation might be the solution at least for the short term.

According to the DA, the highest farmgate price of onion is at P350 per kilo. Meanwhile, local red onions retail at P280 to P650 per kilo while white onions sell for P400 to P600 per kilo. These are way above the suggested retail price of P250 per kilo issued by the DA.

Last July, the DA said the country ran out of supply of white and red onions as no import permits were issued for the commodity.

One online source says that the Philippines imports most of its onions from India, China and the US and is one of the largest importer of onions in the world.

In 2021, the Philippines imported 101,680 metric tons of onions compared to 87,530 in 2020 and 23,590 in 2019.

A report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) revealed that as early as 2000, onion farmers in the Philippines had complained that the volume of onion imports had increased. The onslaught of cheap onion imports mostly China as well as those that entered the country illegally had resulted in the lowering of prices of domestically produced onions. Farmers added that imports usually come in during harvest time or when local produce have just been released from storages.

But this was denied by importers who said the entry of onion imports never coincided with local harvest of March to May.

The Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food (PCAFI) recently blamed the onion shortage on the failure of the DA to adequately project supply and demand for the commodity, resulting in a delay in turning to imports. According to PCAFI president Danilo Fausto, the 2022 shortage was estimated at about 40,000 to 50,000 metric tons and so added imports should have been ordered in July and August to meet the demand spike during the holidays.

Fausto said that there is no such thing as hoarding of onions since they tend to have a short shelf life unless they are kept in cold storage. The reason why prices are up, he emphasized, is because supply is low.

He added that if the government will not put up cold storage, the expected bumper harvest by April might result in onions being just thrown away.

As in other agricultural crops, farmers plant more when prices are high during the lean months. Come harvest time, there is an oversupply, prices go down, farmers in far-flung places find no one to sell their produce to, often resulting in fruits and vegetables rotting and being thrown away.

Oversupply should not be a problem if farmers can transform their crops into something that has a longer shelf life, or if they can afford to pay for cold storage.

There was a time when we saw tons of tomatoes being thrown away because of oversupply. But aren’t there so many products made out of tomatoes like puree, sauce, candied ones, etc. that have longer shelf lives?

The solution to our agricultural problem appears to be very simple. But why can’t we do it? If farmers are assured of stable prices, then there is no reason why we can’t be a net agricultural exporter.

If the DA can match the demand and supply numbers and link the producers with the buyers and end-users especially the industrial ones, invest in cold storage facilities and offer these services for free or even at minimal rates to our farmers, then food self-sufficiency can be attained easily by this administration.

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