Onion woes continue: Wait for a month, say traders
According to reports, India's daily requirement of onion is 50,000-60,000 tonnes. However, the import volume is too less to cater to the need of the domestic market.
FollowOnion prices continue to remain high across the country even as the Centre expressed hope that the kharif crop could soon hit the markets, cooling down the prices.
According to reports, India's daily requirement of onion is 50,000-60,000 tonnes, and the import volume is too less to cater to the need of the domestic market.Â
In Mumbai, even though imported onion from Iran and Egypt have helped ease the supply pressure yet the retailers were not passing on the benefit to the end users. Onions are still being sold between Rs 80-Rs 100 a kilo.
Traders at the Agricultural Produce Market Committee say that prices will stay high for another month till full-fledged supply of new onions hit the market.
Vegetable trader in Gujarat said that onion prices will further increase by Rs 10-15 per kg as supply will not increase till Diwali.
With the cost of onions hovering above Rs 100 a kilo, hoteliers in Bengaluru have been forced to take dishes comprising the vegetable off the menu.
The adverse weather conditions are being widely blamed for the situation. Due to damage to the standing crop in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, fresh supply of the new harvest to the markets has been disrupted.
The Centre had on Friday imposed limits on the onion stocks that traders and wholesalers can hold invoking a provision of the newly-amended Essential Commodities Act of 1955.
As per the central order, retailers will not be allowed to store more than two tonnes of onions with them while for wholesalers this limit will be 25 tonnes.
Odisha Food and Supplies Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain blamed the Centre for the spiralling onion prices and claimed that the inflated prices will continue to pinch the pocket of consumers for two more months.
"When the Centre notified farm ordinances a few weeks ago and also amended the Essential Commodities (EC) Act removing cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onion and potatoes from the list of essential commodities, Odisha and other State governments protested. This act by the Centre was carried out without taking opinion from the State governments which was a gross violation of our federal structue and the fiasco has now led to the steep rise in the prices of the bulb vegetable across the country," Swain told Odisha TV.
