Short supply of Onion causes price rise - Rs 50 per kg

After the tomatoes skyrocketed to Rs 100 per kg and dropped to Rs 40, the prices of onion have shot up to Rs 50 in a week’s time. Last week onions were sold at Rs 15 per kg and today it was sold at Rs 43 at Hopcoms, reports Kannada Prabha.

Last week, the onions were priced at Rs 30 for 2 kgs. This week whole-sale rates are Rs 30 per kg and retail rates are Rs 40 per kg. The sudden rise in price on onions is attributed to the reduced number of lorry loads arriving from Maharashtra. The daily supply of 140 lorries has come down to 70 to 80. The daily supply from Bijapur of 30 to 40 lorries has come down to 15 to 20. The onion traders are expecting that till new crop arrives in September, price variation will continue.

B Ravishankar, director of Onion Traders’ Association, said onion is grown from Sira in Tumakuru district to Maharashtra border. Previous year in August, 130 lorry load of onion was supplied into APMC. This year only 20 to 25 per cent of that is expected. In the second crop, last year 1000 load was received at APMC. This year the second crop is expected to be only 300 to 400 loads.

The Maharashtra farmers stock onions till the next supply arrives. In Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan also the traders stock onions and do not sell in distress. Hence after March, the prices of onion keep fluctuating. Bangla Desh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala states depend on Karnataka for onion supply. There is a short supply of onions due to rain shortage. Hence the price rise.

There is an increase in price of onions in Maharashtra. A farmer growing 10 loads of onion sells 50 quintal every 15 days. The March and April crops of onions are being supplied from Challakere in Chitradurga, Hubballi, Gadag, Davanagere, Bagalakot, Belagavi and Vijayapura. Till the second crop arrives at the market, the price fluctuations are expected, said onion traders.  

• Onion rates go up
• Short supply of onions
• onion price
• karnataka