Retail onion prices at ₧200 a kilo as imports arrive By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas
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HE retail price of onions plunged on Monday to a low of P200 per kilogram as imported supplies started to enter the country. Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) Director Glenn Panganiban said the first batches of onion imports arrived late last Friday. Panganiban told reporters that about 400 metric tons (MT) of yellow onions and 800 MT of red onions are now in
the local cold storages and are awaiting second border clearance by the BPI. Panganiban said they expect the imported onions to be sold in the local markets within the week. The BPI earlier opened its 21,060-MT onion importation program, but only about 5,000 MT were issued sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances (SPSICs) as importers showed weak appetite for the import program due to various factors. The latest price monitoring report
by the Department of Agriculture (DA) showed that prevailing retail prices of local red onions in Metro Manila markets have subsided to P200 to P350 per kilogram, from what used to be P700 per kilogram on the average. However, DA reports also showed that local white onions are fetching P200 to P350 per kilogram while prices of imported white onions are ranging from P220 to P300 per kilogram. The price of onions has been declining since the national govern-
ment announced its onion importation program. Panganiban reiterated that they do not expect the whole 5,000 MT approved imports to arrive in the country, which is a usual pattern in previous importation programs of the government. Agriculture Assistant Secretary Rex Estoperez said the imported stocks would not be concentrated on Metro Manila alone since they would be divided among consumers nationwide. See “Retail onion,” A2
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BSP’S INFLATION TACK: w
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Tuesday, January 24, 2023 Vol. 18 No. 101
P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 22 pages |
JUNK NTB, HIKE IMPORTS
ILO MISSION Members of different labor groups send off the labor leaders attending a dialogue with International Labor Organization delegates to a high-level tripartite mission to the country in Makati City on Monday, January 23, 2023. The activity coincided with the Global Day of Action for Filipino Workers' Right to Decent Work and Freedom of Association. Story on page A14. NONIE REYES
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By Cai U. Ordinario
@caiordinario
HE national government should remove non-tariff barriers (NTBs) and allow more imports to bring down commodity prices nationwide, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). In the Philippine Economic Briefing in Frankfurt, Germany, BSP Governor Felipe M. Medalla said inflation in the country is still traceable to supply shocks that have caused shortages in certain commodities. Non-tariff barriers are measures that hinder the importation of goods. These prevent the entry of foreign goods into the Philippine market. “Obviously the solution, to me, is to import more and get rid of all the non-tariff barriers because the main reason [imports are low] is it’s so hard to get import permits. [But] I’m satisfied that the government is now doing everything it can to speed up the importation,” Medalla said. These efforts, Medalla said, would help bring the country closer to the midpoint of the 2 to 4 percent BSP inflation target by 2024.
By the last quarter of the year, inflation nationwide could already be below 4 percent. Based on the country’s history, Medalla said the longest time the country has seen inflation of above 4 percent is 15 months. The country has also experienced, at its worst, four large shocks in a span of only four months. Medalla said it took around 16 months before the base effects created from these shocks wore off. But since most of these past shocks have not been accompanied by wage price inflation, secondary inflation effects did not emerge. Still, Medalla said the recent supply shock that the economy experienced “is worse than before.” This means, the supply shock impact on inflation may last 16 months to as long as 18 months before it wears off.
WTTC HITS ‘KNEE-JERK’ TRAVEL RULES ON CHINESE TRAVELERS By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo
@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror
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GLOBAL organization of private tourism and travel stakeholders threw shade at several governments for imposing restrictions on Chinese outbound travelers. Julia Simpson, president and CEO of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) welcomed the reopening of mainland China to international travel, noting, “Chinese visitors around the world contributed US$253 billion to the global economy in 2019, creating jobs and boosting regional economies. The recovery of the Chinese travel and tourism sector is very welcome.” However, she stressed, “Introducing knee-jerk travel restrictions shows governments have learned nothing about the behavior of this virus and continue to ignore the World Health Organization’s advice that border restrictions do not stop the virus mutating or moving around the globe. The reintroduction of ineffective Covid testing to Chinese travelers is
a step backwards for the global travel and tourism sector.” Among the governments that imposed additional testing rules on arriving Chinese travelers are those of the United States, Japan, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Israel, Morocco, Qatar, Australia, India, Malaysia, South Korea, and Taiwan. Philippine lawmakers and tourism stakeholders earlier called for stepped-up testing protocols for Chinese tourists, but Manila has said enough rules are already in place to ferret out the Covid-positive among international travelers, no matter the nationality. (See, “DOT, DOH: Existing protocols are fine, amid China Covid fears,” in the BusinessMirror, December 30, 2022)
Expanding onion cold chain capacity to cost ₧6B–group
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HE Cold Chain Association of the Philippines (CCAP) on Monday said it requires at least P6 billion to double the industry’s storage capacity for onions and slash the disparity between the total supply annually and storage capacity. CCAP President Anthony S. Dizon said the estimated capacity of
cold storages dedicated for onions nationwide is about 100,000 metric tons (MT), which is only 27 percent of the annual 360,000-MT supply. Dizon said cold storages for onions have a “unique” design and conditions to cater to the commodity, which entail high humidity and moderate air circulation. See “Expanding,” A2
Stricter Covid test to enter China
THE Philippines requires unvaccinated travelers, regardless of nationality, to only submit a negative result from an antigen test taken 24 hours from departure. The vaccinated merely have to present their vaccination See “WTTC,” A2
See “Inflation tack,” A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 54.6390
n JAPAN 0.4220 n UK 67.7742 n HK 6.9791 n CHINA 8.0662 n SINGAPORE 41.4654 n AUSTRALIA 38.0287 n EU 59.4035 n KOREA 0.0445 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.5491
Source: BSP (January 23, 2023)