The retail prices of onions have climbed by at least P20 per kg, with the highest selling price reaching P200 per kilo, up from P180 per kilo last week, based on the Department of Agriculture's (DA) monitoring.

According to DA surveillance, the bulbs on Monday were priced as high as P200 per kg at Guadalupe Public Market in Makati and Marikina Public Market in Marikina City.

In other Metro Manila markets, including New Las Piñas City Public Market, San Andres Market, Quinta Market, Pritil Market in Manila, Pamilihang Lungsod ng Muntinlupa, Pasay City Market, Pasig City Market, Commonwealth Market, Muñoz Market, Mega Q-Market in Quezon City, and Malabon Central Market, onion retail prices ranged between P160 and P190 per kilo.

Rosendo So, president of the farmers' group Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag), said the DA should prepare for the importation of white onions in August to avoid another problem in December.

So far, the onion harvest has been completed in Northern Luzon, but it is still happening for farmers in Mindoro.

He also stated that the majority of equities are now in the hands of traders.

According to So, the DA should learn from the country's experience in December last year, when there was a bulb shortage due to the government's failure to import.

The Sinag official stated that due to a lack of supply of white bulbs at the time, institutional customers such as restaurants moved to red onions, resulting in a shortage of onions in December 2022, when demand was strong due to the holidays.

Due to a supply shortfall, onion retail prices reached P720 per kilo in December 2022.

The DA said the entire onion harvest in 2022 will be 283,172 metric tons. Onion production is expected to reach 218,050 MT in 2021.

Onions are grown on at least 29,728 hectares of land across the country.