Prices of primary ingredients such as onions and high-value vegetables are beginning to rise as December is fast approaching.

Provincial Agriculturist I Mary Ahcy Azuro of the Agribusiness and Marketing section of the Office of Provincial Agriculturist said yesterday that the situation is not new, especially for the Christmas season.

She said the price of onions recently went up to P120 per kilogram from the stable P40 to P60 due to the shortage of supply brought by typhoon Lando in Northern Luzon last month.

The supply of Negros Occidental is imported from the Northern Luzon areas, however the higher price is just temporary because farmers have already planted again. They will be harvesting in three to four months and will bring sufficient supply to the market, she said.

It is the same with high-value vegetables like carrots from Cagayan de Oro and Baguio that increased to P160 to 180 per kilo which, in the last three months were only P50 to 75 per kilo.

Cabbages that could be bought last month at P30 to 40 a kilo went up to P75 to 85, she added.

  Meanwhile the price of ginger declined due to a higher volume of produce and some farmers made early harvest to avail of good prices in the market.

Azuro advised consumers to shift to other types of vegetables for consumption that cost less but are equally, or more nutritious.*KDP

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