Vendors still sell red onions above the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) suggested retail price of P250 a kilo.

At the Pasay Public Market, peeled red onions fetch P500 a kilo since these were brought in Divisoria. Peeled red onions, which are smaller, have been sought by buyers.

"We can sell peeled red onions for 3 kilos without being rotten for the whole day", said a vendor named Blessie.

In another stall, small red onions with leaves are P250 to P270 per kilo while local white onions are P520 per kilo.

At the Tandang Sora public market, people are buying red onions in smaller quantities as demand is low after the holidays.

“ The demand is low because Christmas is over. And there are only a few customers who are buying,” vendor Edna Leynes told The Daily Manila Shimbun.

“They buy it per piece, not by kilo anymore. They buy four pieces or five pieces. Even during Christmas, there are only a few who buy them in half a kilo. The biggest (portion that customers buy) is one-fourth kilo,” she added.

Leynes sells red onions at P450 per kilo, while smaller ones are sold at P13.50 per piece and bigger ones cost P18 each.

She said she bought onions from her suppliers at P400, down from P650 during the holiday season.

For 50-year-old Lanie Idica, she said people are trying to save money after the holiday season.

“More onions were sold during Christmas and New Year,” Idica said.

Idica said she gets her onions from Balintawak.

She sells her onions at P500 per kilo and P10 per piece.

Idica, who grew up in a family of farmers in Ilocos Sur, said this is the first time in decades that onions were sold at an extremely high price.

“I have been selling onions for a long time, but this is the first time the prices have gone up like that,” Idica told The Daily Manila Shimbun.

Idica attributes the high prices to a lack of onion farmers and lack of imported onions.

Eldo Montilla, 50, only sells his onions in small packets which contain around four to five pieces. “There are barely any customers,” Montilla said.

He said he bought his onions for P300 per kilo. Onion prices at the Tandang Sora market range from P400 to P550. Jaspearl Tan and Edric Acidre/DMS