According to onion producers, the purchase of 10,000 bushels of onions from the Association of the Community of Producers from Tierras Altas (ACPTA) by the Institute of Agricultural Marketing (IMA) does not solve the underlying problem caused by onion imports.
Producers, importers, and marketers of onions have previously expressed that sales of national onions are at a critical state nationwide.
The purchase of onions from the ACPTA was intended to solve the marketing problem that producers had due to imports, but, according to the president of the Association, Augusto Jimenez, this action was only a temporary solution.
In addition, producers are subjected to the bureaucratic process of governmental purchases; as the purchase was already endorsed by the Comptroller General of the Republic.
"Now we have to wait for the Comptroller's signature. Meanwhile, time continues to go by and producers need money," he said.
The Marketing Directorate of the IMA stated in September that they had placed more than 3,000 sacks of onions in different supermarkets and in other businesses that had distributed them in various subsidiaries.
The entity also stated that the IMA did not allow the marketing of imported onions in any of its fairs and that they had taken steps to prevent this from happening, such as the temporary or permanent suspension of the people who sold the products.
Source: panamaamerica.com.pa