Newsbreak Chats: Explaining the breakfast crisis

MANILA, Philippines – The country is in a goods crisis, with basic commodities selling above their usual market prices.

The humble onion is at the center of the crisis, with prices reaching as high as P600 per kilo, seven times higher than the world average, at around P80 per kilo.

Over 21,000 metric tons of onions were recently approved for importation to the country, but only 5,000 MT will be coming in due to import clearances. 

This importation also comes at a bad time, just when local farmers are ready to harvest their onion crops. (READ: As onion prices fall ahead of imports, farmers’ livelihoods, lives at risk)

Eggs, sugar, and salt are also experiencing an unusual increase in selling prices in the past few months, with importations coming a little too late.

In this episode of Newsbreak Chats, Rappler Managing Editor Miriam Grace Go sits down with multimedia reporter Ralf Rivas on the current crisis in Philippine agriculture, its causes, and ways that it can be mitigated in the future.

They also look into how the current agriculture chief – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. – has handled the Department of Agriculture since taking office on June 30, 2022.

Watch Newsbreak Chats on Thursday, January 26, at 4 pm. – Rappler.com