Onion traders across Maharashtra suspended trading in the commodity during the first half of Wednesday in protest. This comes a day after National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation announced that no fresh NOCs would be issued for onion exporters for the next fortnight.
The Nafed announcement, however, had its effect as the wholesale prices came down by Rs 3 on the first day of trading after the ban was announced. The model price in Nashik has come down to Rs 1,521 per quintal on Wednesday from Rs 1,821 on Monday. The markets were closed on Tuesday on account of Gandhi Jayanti.
Traders are of the opinion that an announcement to the effect was not required and would hurt market sentiments. ?We have bought onion at a high price and now the prices would go down now with the announcement, hurting our margins,? said a trader based in Manmad, Maharashtra.
Onion and Potato Merchants? Association secretary Rajinder Sharma, too, was against the clampdown on exports, saying this would damage the country?s image in the global markets and countries importing from here would go elsewhere.
?Onion is not a staple food. Besides, even if the entire onion produce of the country was sold, no one would die of hunger. But, India?s image as a reliable importer would definitely take a hit. The move is not healthy for the economy,? Sharma said. He pointed out such knee-jerk reactions, like banning sugar exports in June 2006, skimmed milk powder in February and wheat exports in March, would also hurt exporters.
However, contrary to expectations, onion exporters say they are not affected much with this time. According to them, Indian exports had already lost the cost advantage when Nafed had raised the minimum export price (MEP) in August to control domestic onion prices.