Onions are more expensive than chicken, and even have to be smuggled!

You would assume that unlawful shipments of gold nuggets or silver coins are on customs agents’ radar when they are looking to make a bust. However, the Philippine government apparatus is now on high alert to crack down on smugglers who are attempting to import, get ready for this, onions! The cost of the common vegetable has skyrocketed, making chicken more affordable.

The Department of Agriculture in the Philippines reported that a kilogramme of red and white onions was going for 600 Philippine pesos ($11). The price of chicken, which was marketed for 220 pesos ($4) per kilogramme, is almost three times higher. Onion prices have risen above the nation’s minimum daily wage, allowing smugglers to fill a lucrative but illicit market.

Joey Salceda, a resident economist at the Philippine House of Representatives, was reported by CNN as saying that the Philippines has the ‘highest domestic onion pricing in the world’. There are indications that this will happen. Last year, a series of major typhoons damaged an onion crop worth tens of billions of pesos. The nation has been plagued by rising inflation in recent months.

Consumer prices increased 8.1% in December of last year, the Philippine Statistics Authority reports. This is a fourteen-year high. The police are pursuing the traffickers aggressively because to allegations of onion price manipulation. White onions worth USD 310,000 were confiscated by customs authorities on December 23. In clothes shipments, onions were smuggled in. Red onions worth USD 364,000 were confiscated just two days prior. These were being hidden inside pastry boxes.