Staff of Panama’s  Consumer Protection Authority  (Acodeco) swooped on  stallholders in Merca Panama  on Friday, August 16 to check that imported onions are not being sold  at above the permitted price

More than 60,000 thousand quintals of onion were imported tariff-free in an emergency move.

 National and imported yellow onions, packaged or not, must be sold at a maximum price of 80 cents per pound.

The regulation excludes organic onions and those with a diameter greater than 84 millimeters.

On July 16, the Cabinet Council approved the temporary elimination of the onion import tariff with the intention of supplying the country's consumption between July and September 2019.

In Panama, a total of 270 producers are dedicated to growing 484 hectares of onions, a production that currently only supplies 25% of local consumption.

On August 7, the first shipment of onions arrived in Merca Panama, from the United States