The price of onion has been stable and should stay that way on account of bumper rabi onion crop in Rajasthan. According to a trader from Nashik the wholesale price of the key agricultural commodity has been around R750 per quintal and is expected to be stable during coming few weeks.?With the sufficient stocks, the prices are expected to see less volatility during next few months,? a trader told FE.
Due to the bumper rabi harvest of onion crop in Sikar and Naguar districts of Rajasthan, there was a huge arrival in mandis, which pulled down the price to a record low of R300 per quintal, leading to protests by farmers. The output in Rajasthan is estimated to be more than 7,50,000 tonne, which is over 2,50,000 tonne more than the average annual production.
The state government had asked the National Cooperative Consumers Federation of India (NCCF) and National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited (Nafed) to look after the procurement. As per the agreement with the Rajasthan civil supplies department, Nafed at present is buying 1,000 tonnes of onions per day while NCCF is lifting 600 tonnes.
A Nafed official said that as the federation, after procuring onions from farmers, started to move stocks to consuming states such as Haryana, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, the wholesale price in Rajasthan has moved up to around R400 per quintal.
The National Horticulture Research and Development Foundation in its latest crop prospect reports said that the rabi onion production in the country is estimated to be more than 8.8 million tonnes.