The wholesale onion prices at Lasalgaon and Pimpalgaon, major trading hubs of the vegetable in Maharashtra, dropped to R4,800 per quintal on Thursday from R5,600 per quintal prevailing a week back. This is expected to bring down retail onion prices across the country during the next few days. Due to the possibility of a decline in kharif onion output, the retail prices has risen to as high as R80 per kg in many cities across the country in the last one week or so.
Meanwhile, agriculture ministry officials informed the consumer affairs department on Thursday that the expected loss of the kharif crop in Maharashtra, the biggest producer of onion, would be less than anticipated and the output in Madhya Pradesh is expected to be higher. So the overall kharif onion production would not be hit hard. “The onion production this year is likely to be the same as last year,” an official statement said. According to National Horticultural Development and Research Foundation (NHDRF) data, the onion production is estimated to be at 18.92 million tonne (MT) in 2014-15 (April – March).
A consumer affairs ministry official said that at present, onion stocks are arriving from Karnataka, which has pulled down the Delhi whole sale price to R4,100 per quintal. In a bid to provide onion at a reasonable prices, the key vegetable has been sold at R38 per kg at 390 SAFAL stores (promoted by National Dairy Development Board), R35 per kg at 120 outlets of Delhi Milk Scheme and R30 per kg at fair price shops in Delhi and surrounding areas.
In a step which would virtually stop onion exports, the government last week hiked the minimum export price of onion to $700 per tonne from $425 per tonne to restrict exports, and the state government has been asked to impose stock holding limits on traders. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are the key producer of the agricultural commodity. Onion is produced in three seasons: Kharif (15-20% of the total production) which is harvested in October; late kharif in December( 20-25% of the total produce), which comes to the market in January-March; and rabi (55 – 60% of the produce), which is harvested in March-May.
