Why Onions Are Suddenly Being Smuggled Into One Country
An onion shortage due to extreme weather has caused prices to soar to $11 per kilogram in the Philippines, prompting residents to try and smuggle in the staple vegetable.
The onion, a cupboard staple, has soared in price due to high inflation rates in one country. Onions can be used in a variety of different ways and are something every household has in its cupboard or fridge. They can be added to sauces, meals, sandwiches, and soups, so imagine the citizens of the Philippines’ horror when the price of this precious vegetable costs three times as much as chicken.
Two types of onions, red and white, are selling for the equivalent of $11 per kilogram, which is outrageous. Just to compare, in the Philippines, the cost of chicken is equivalent to $4 per kilogram. So onions are the most expensive ingredient for meals by far at the moment.
Other meats, including beef, are also cheaper than onions at the moment, so why have onions become the most expensive vegetable in the Phillippines? Experts state that this price rise is due to several super typhoons that hit the islands last year. During these storms, billions of crops, including onions, were destroyed. So this shortage of onions has driven up their price.
On top of the resulting damage from these storms, inflation is increasing rapidly, with prices growing by 8.1%, the highest jump in nearly fifteen years. These soaring prices have prompted many investigations into figuring out what is causing this rise in inflation and what is the best course of action to combat it.
So like everything with great value, some people in the Philippines have started to smuggle onions into the country. Over the holiday period, customs seized over $600,000 worth of onions being concealed in different vehicles in the hope of being smuggled in to be sold.
Smuggling is something the Philippines will have to lock down on to deter people from seeking produce from their neighboring countries. It will affect their economy, which is already battling inflation, as everything that is sold in a country has a tax on it that the government collects. If people are smuggling in produce, the government does not get the tax, which can negatively affect the economy if this is completed on a large scale.
The government has been trying to find a way to sell the smuggled produce to clamp down on the onion supply issues. This week, they approved the importation of over 21,000 tons of onions to reduce both inflation and smuggling across the country. This shipment will arrive by the end of January. Importing these onions will paper over the cracks until peak harvest season comes in February, and stock will be back up of everyone’s most diverse vegetable.
Inflation caused havoc across the world in 2022, and it seems to be continuing that trend into 2023. Food prices, in particular, have increased globally as the government battle to keep the cost of living down. It is something that cannot be fixed quickly or easily, but hopefully, in the new harvest, the people of the Philippines can afford to use onions again. What is soup without the flavor of onions?
