Onion prices rise on supply crunch

By P.K. Jha

New Delhi, Aug 28 (IANS) Onion prices have soared again. Due to supply crunch in the last one month, prices have doubled across agricultural markets. In Delhi's Azadpur agricultural market, good quality onion is selling at Rs 30-40 a kg and in retail, Rs 50-60 a kg.

On Wednesday, 57 trucks of onion (about 1,200 tonnes) arrived at the Azadpur agriculture market. On Tuesday, only 37 trucks had arrived.

According to traders at the mandi, anything less than 70 trucks will create onion demand-supply gap and increase the price. Onion prices doubled in August due to poor supply, said President of the Association of Onion Merchants Rajendra Sharma.

Following floods in major supplying states, like Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, the arrival of onion had shrunk, causing price rise, said a trader at Azadpur Mandi.

At the benchmark Lasalgaon mandi of Nasik (Maharashtra), Asia's largest onion wholesale market, prices have shot up 80 per cent to trade at Rs 27-28 per kg.

A Nasik wholesale trader said, stocks had declined in other parts of the country as well and it would take two months for new produce to arrive due to late sowing of kharif onion. All these factors were contributing to the price rise, he added.

As the prices increased, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) released onion from the buffer stock to help contain the price.

Sharma said different varieties of onion were selling at different prices in the Azadpur Mandi. Prices might keep fluctuating in mandis for some time as big stockists were not releasing their stock in the hope of getting better prices later, he added.

However, the government has removed the 10 per cent subsidy on export of fresh onion to contain prices in the domestic market.

(P.K.Jha can be contacted at pramod.j@ians.in)