This Friday afternoon, I roamed around the Hilltop Market in Baguio City and the cheapest tag I saw for red onions is P40 per 1/4 kg. There was only one of this and almost all other tags were P45. My head was spinning. Why??? The last time I bought a kilogram of red onion, it was just P120.00. That was less than a month ago and now it has skyrocketed to more than 50% increase of the price. What's happening with the world!?
I approached a stall and asked the vendor in our local dialect.
"What's with the onions?" He immediately understood that I was asking about the very high price.
"There is no supply, ma'am. We got nowhere to buy."
"How come?"
"There are only few of us who plant onions and yet the government blocked the importation." He meant us Filipinos have few farmers of onions so we don't have much.
"What?"
"Yes, ma'am. Usually by this time of the year, we have many imported onions from India. Not this time. Customs blocked the entry."
"Seriously!?"
I cringed and my eyes narrowed. I looked at the other group of onions on display. They are cheaper but don't look good. The vendor noticed me staring at those and he commented.
"Those are our RR."
"What RR? Rejects?"
"Yes." Whatever RR literally means, I did not ask.
The price difference for rejects is a very small amount as compared to the good ones. That is really not good.
I started picking from the group tagged as P45 per 1/4 kg. The sadder part of it is that some of the onions start to soften which means they are old stock. I asked the vendor if he has more from his stock so I have more options to choose from. He said it will be the same.
I finished buying one kilogram and moved on to the next stall where my eyes have been catching their more expensive pricing. I aimed my camera to the tag price while asking permission from the vendor to take a photo.
"Can I take a photo, please? I would like to show it to my boss." I wonder who's that boss that came out of my mouth.
The vendor agreed. "Yes, ma'am. Go ahead because that will still get more expensive."
"What???"
"Yes ma'am. Prices are zooming up. Don't you notice? You're here almost every week."
Ah, so people tend to remember strangers. I wonder if she's been observing me when I roam around the market. And yes, I notice the prices going up but never before as fast as this more than 50% increase in a very short period.
Many farmers in the Cordillera provinces have been crying out due to "over-supply" of highland vegetables (e.g. cabbage, carrots, bell pepper, beans, etc.) thus their products are either sold at almost give-away prices or returned to the farm to literally rot and serve as compost fertilizers. One of the main reasons of over-supply and very low prices is because of the competition with imported vegetables. Many of the imported vegetables are sold at very low prices so people wonder why. The farmers, including some government officials, suspect that those vegetables were smuggled into the country so no taxes were imposed thus can be disposed at very low price.
To hear that our government has blocked importation should be very good and a relief but unfortunately, the blocking was imposed the wrong way. I am from the highlands and onions are lowland products which I just learned from the vendor that we lack supply. So why would the government block the importation? Aren't they supposed to block only the products that we have enough?
This continous rising of prices, continous devaluation of our peso value, news about layoffs, investors leaving the country... what could be worse? Is Philippines gearing towards recession? Are other countries experiencing the same?
All these happened so fast in the last few months and I cannot help wondering... the new President seem to have started with the wrong foot.
Well, I just wanted to rant about my marketing experience and it happened to be on a Friday. That reminded me of @dswigle's #marketfriday initiative so here I am... 😊
In spite of my rant, have a great weekend you beautiful people! 🌞💖🌞
UH OH 😜👀
She's got here eyes on U!! :P
yea, if that price can rise so much, and just the price for onions? it must be so bad for most everythin.. :(
that's why i dont understand why inflation is so down-played.. meaning they (the govt or news, etc) will just say inflation is always some single digit increase (in %), higher that last year's prices.. when it's obvious that it's more like 40% at least!
I passed by the market this morning. Their regular tag price for the onions is at P48 per 1/4 kg. That is one-peso increase everyday in three days!
The government and the media seem trying to keep the news positive which I somehow understand. What I don't understand are the people who would defend negatively like "eh di ikaw na mag-presidente para ikaw magpagamda mg bansa", "hindi lang Pilipinas ang may ganitong problema", "maraming factors amg nakaka-apekto ng dollar rate" and more nonsense defense. Instead of thinking about solutions, people makes useless excuses.
yup. 😣😖 just grin and bear.. (bare?), just survive is more like it! :P
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