The crops of onions from Ocaña, known as Ocañera onions, were replaced by Peruvian onions. The producers of Ocaña decided to replace their crops because the Peruvian seed has a much higher yield than the local onions. A hectare planted with Peruvian seeds produces three times what it would produce with ocareña seeds.
According to producers, a pound of Peruvian seeds can produce up to 130 bundles. The Peruvian onions have a good quality so producers believe they would also make good profits from it. However, this is not the case, as the Peruvian onion from Ocaña has to compete with the Peruvian onion imported in large numbers. As a result, there's been an outrageous decrease in freight prices.
The boom times of the Ocaña onions are but a memory now and in recent years, after the uncontrolled entry of the imported onions, producers have had nothing but losses. Luis Hernan Plata, a producer from Aspasica, stated what the producers believe, "the land is no longer good to cultivate ocañera onions, perhaps because of climate change. We have to compete against the Peruvian onion with the same Peruvian onion."
The origin of this struggle is as simple as it is cloudy. Peruvian onions became known in the region because their uncontrolled entry brought down local onion prices. The arrival of smuggled truckloads of Peruvian onion became an unfair competition for onion production in this region of Norte de Santander. The Peruvian product had a much lower price than the national product.
As a result, producers and distributors are finding it hard to make a living out of selling onions. "Nowadays one can buy a cargo of onions for 60 thousand pesos, and farmers can't even pay freight prices with that," said Federico Vega Galeano, a distributor of onions.
The Peruvina onions cultivated in towns, such as Ocaña, Abrego, La Playa de Belen, is chosen and packed in the market of Ocana. Ramon Elias Guerrero, a producers of onions from Bucarasica, said, "transporting the onions costs twelve thousand pesos, I have planted some 500 hectares of onion in which I invested about ten million pesos and I only got paid three million pesos for the onions I brought to Ocaña. I can't even pay my workers." Ocaña's onion sector is estimated to have lost seven billion pesos on account of the arrival of the Peruvian product so they are about to declare themselves bankrupt, said another producer. Nelson Rueda, a marketer of Peruvian onions, said producers were bringing their products to throw it away.
Amado Duran, president of the Association of onion producers from Aspasica, said the region's traditional onion sector was coming to its end because of the uncontrolled entry of Peruvian onions. There was a time when the ocañera onion had no competition. "People everywhere liked the red and common varieties, but it is now impossible to compete with the onions from Peru because they are too cheap," said Encarnacion Ballesteros, another affected trader, who said that two bundles of onions produced in the area were paid at 280 or 300 thousand pesos when there is a lack of Peruvian onions. "However, once the Peruvian onion arrives, the price of the Ocareña onion decreases to 40 thousand pesos so producers have losses."
To improve the situation, the Ministry of Rural Development from Ocaña submitted five projects to the Ministry of Agriculture to resume the indigenous culture of red onions in the region and to boost its marketing through a direct marketing strategy that would give the Ocañera onion the recognition it once had. Meanwhile producers and distributors in the province of Ocaña, who continue cultivating and selling onions despite having losses, expect a response from the national government.
Source: elespectador.com