Onions prices continue to surge leaving consumers in distress

Prices of onions continued to rise while the consumers started to ration the use of onion.

Bengaluru: The price of onion continues to soar drastically in Madurai making it an unaffordable commodity for the common man.

The price of the vegetable touched Rs 200 per kg on Sunday with fine quality of edible bulb selling more than Rs 250 in the retail market of Madurai. In Bengaluru, the price touched Rs 150 for small sized onions. Traders too are facing trouble as the people are buying less onions due to the surge in the price.

Speaking to ANI, Moorthy, an onion trader in Madurai said, "Customers who used to buy 5 kg onions earlier are now buying only 1 kg."

Annoyed with the sky-rocketing prices of onions, a buyer named Jaya Subha said, "I am spending Rs 350-400 per week only on buying onions."

The central government, on Tuesday, revised the stock-holding limit of onion to 25 tonnes for wholesalers and five tonnes for retailers. Importers will be exempted from these stock limits for imported stock.

The price of onions has been on the rise in many states of the country, which has even sparked protests among the people. In spite of the supply of onions from Turkey and Egypt, however, the price of onions has not reduced in the domestic market.

The sky-rocketing prices of onion forced the Union government and traders to import the vegetable from foreign countries such as Egypt, Turkey and Afghanistan.

To control the rising prices of onions, the government imported 11,000 tonnes of the staple vegetable from Turkey and 6,090 tonnes from Egypt last week.

Another onion import order of 4,000 tonnes from Turkey and the shipments are expected to reach by mid-January.