Even if the ongoing truckers? strike, that has pushed prices of fruits and vegetable up across the country, ends in the near future, the price of onion is expected to remain firm because of late arrival of the Kharif crop from Maharashtra, the country?s biggest onion producing state.

Deficient and delayed rainfall in the Nashik region, which produces more than a quarter of country?s 8 million tonne of onion, has resulted in the Kharif crop hitting the market almost two months behind schedule.

According to C B Holkar, vice-chairman, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (Nafed), onion prices rose during the festive months of October and November before coming down by December.

?Usually stock from the summer crop is exhausted during the festive months and the new Kharif crop hits the market by November which keeps prices down,? Holkar told FE in Nashik. However, because of the delay in Kharif sowing in 2008-09, the new crop has just started to arrive at wholesale markets in Nashik.

According to Holkar, the wholesale price of onion is in range of Rs 1,300 – Rs 1,400 per quintal at present in Nashik against the normal seasonal price of Rs 400- Rs 500 per quintal.After adding freight cost, onion is being sold at Rs 1,700 – Rs 1,800 per quintal at the Delhi wholesale market.

Meanwhile, according to the National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation and other trade reports, Kharif onion production has suffered a setback and is expected to be almost 50% less than usual output.

?The ongoing transport strike has also accentuated the volatility in the prices of onion,? a trader from the Delhi wholesale market said.

However, the spurt in the prices of onion is expected to ease by mid-March 2009, when the late kharif crop from other states like Rajasthan, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu enter the market.

To ensure availability of onion in the domestic market, Nafed raised the minimum export price (MEP) of onion by $50 a tonne to an average of $380-$385 for January. Nafed is one of the canalising and monitoring agencies for exports of onion and a nodal agency for market intervention schemes for many commodities.