Cheap smuggled onions may be unsafe – NGO

The agriculture-industry alliance Samahang Industriya ng Agri–kultura (Sinag) have blamed smugglers for the drastic cut in farmgate prices of white onion that is threatening the livelihood of thousands of onion growers and warned that the cheap imports may be unsafe.

In a statement, Sinag claimed that from September to December 2013, close to 400,000 bags or 8.8 million kilos of white onion where smuggled into the country. It said the smuggled onions came from New Zealand and the Netherlands.