People flocked to the store’s Panay, Quezon City branch on Saturday to purchase up to three items such as cooking pans, cleaning solutions, and various other home products priced at P88, with a bulb of onion. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News
MANILA - Japan Home Center on Tuesday said it was able to collect 3,500 onions from its recently concluded "Pay with Sibuyas" campaign which would be used for its community pantry.
Last Feb. 4, JHC's Panay branch accepted onions as payment to collect food items for its community pantry. Select items were priced at 1 onion bulb instead of P88.
Some 3,500 pieces of onions were accumulated, JHC Marketing Officer Mitzi Gamboa told ABS-CBN News.
Approximately 5 baskets of onions will be available to those in need in JHC's community pantry to be set up on Feb. 8 in front of its Panay branch, Gamboa said.
Those who have extra food items were also encouraged to donate to the community pantry.
JHC said the goal of the promotion was not to make profits but to create awareness for its value-for-money products as well as gather items for its community pantry.
Prices of onions surged to as high as P700 per kilo in the previous weeks due to supply constraints. It has since improved with the help of imports and the harvest season, but still remained elevated.
Onion prices were among the drivers of vegetable inflation in the country. In January, vegetable inflation reached 37.8 percent from 32.4 percent the previous month.
Headline inflation for the first month of 2023 hit 8.7 percent, exceeding the government target of 2 to 4 percent as well as the forecast by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
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