With onions now more expensive than beef and chicken in inflation-hit Philippines, expats in the UAE are doing what for them is the most sensible thing: Pack the staple vegetable into a suitcase and bring it home.
Onions are the new chocolates, say Filipinos who recently flew home for the holidays. Now, handing family and friends red onions as coming-home gifts is just as special as giving them bars of the finest chocolates.
“It’s the best pasalubong (coming-home gift),” said Jaze, a Dubai resident who travelled to Manila in December with 10kg of onions in her luggage.
“I told friends and relatives that I could give them only onions and garlic from Dubai as I wasn’t able to shop for other things. They were grateful for it! Considering the unbelievable prices of onions back home, they were very happy to get some for free,” the expat told Khaleej Times.
Jaze said that at a supermarket in Dubai, she was able to buy the onions for only Dh2 per kilogramme — a far cry from the retail prices back home.
In the Philippines, red onions are now being sold for up to 600 pesos (around Dh40) per kilogramme, based on the Department of Agriculture’s monitoring of market prices on January 9. It’s more expensive than beef rump, which retails for 380 to 480 pesos (Dh25.50 to Dh32); and triple the price of chicken,180 to 220 pesos (Dh12 to Dh15).