Members of the public overcrowded the retail stores while store owners lined up in front of the wholesalers on Wednesday morning to purchase onions which have been out of stock because of shipment delays.

Many people had to make their Christmas lunches without onions and in some place where they had little stock left, the prices had been inflated.

Owner of the Pelerose Mini Mart at Vaitele told Samoa Observer that she purchased her onions early in the morning and by 8am customers had already started lining up for the onions. She said her employees had to be on standby to refill the shelves as they were quickly emptied.

Samoa Observer visited her shop around noon on Wednesday and employees were still packing the onions to be placed on the shelves.

The mart owner is grateful that the prices for the onions did not increase due to the long period of shortage - $8.10 for a packet of six large size onions.

"The onions were back in stock at wholesalers last night so store owners could only manage to get their onions this morning(Wednesday) and all of a sudden, the shelves were quickly emptied since the morning and we had to refill," she added.

At Ah Liki wholesale, store owners were sighted in the morning packing large sacks of onions into their vehicles for their stores.

It has been approximately a month since families had to alternate cooking and seasoning their food as all shops across the country ran out of onions.

The shortage of onion was not only felt by Samoa. According to reports, the actual issue was labour shortage in New Zealand which led to the delay in shipment.

Samoa, Fiji, Cook Islands, Tonga and other Pacific nations import onions from New Zealand.