AHMEDABAD: Heavy rains in Bhavnagar and Saurashtra have stoked fears that the onion price will cross the Rs 100 per kg mark in Ahmedabad retail markets in about a week. The retail price has already crossed the Rs 90 per kg mark in the city.
APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) sources said that Navratri has pushed down onion consumption across India, so prices were under control though on the higher side. In the Ahmedabad APMC, the onion price reached Rs 60 per kg on Saturday while app-based platforms were selling at Rs 86 per kg. In retail markets, the price was Rs 95 per kg.
APMC officials said that from Monday the demand will increase and wholesale prices will rise, resulting in the retail price crossing the Rs 100 per kg mark.
During the lockdown, the consumption of onions and potatoes spiked, as they can be stored for long. So about 20% of the stock was pumped into the state markets, including those in Ahmedabad, to meet the demand.
Ghyanshyam Patel, the chairman of the Mahuva APMC, the biggest for onion trading in Gujarat, said: “Onion crops sown in the kharif season have failed in Mahuva, Karnataka, and Maharashtra.” Patel added: “So farmers have begun sowing again and the yield is likely to hit the markets by February. Because of crop shortage, we expect the onion price in Mahuva to reach Rs 100 per kg by mid-November.”
Patel said that in Karnataka, heavy rains in August had washed out onion crops. The produce was to be brought into Gujarat markets in early September. At present, only Maharashtra farmers, and some in Gujarat, have stocked the produce harvested in March and April.
Bhikhabhai Jhagadiya, an office-bearer of the Bhavnagar APMC, said that there has been a rise in demand from international markets such as the Gulf countries, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. “I don’t think prices will stabilize with the ban on exports as supplies will remain poor,” he said.
An office-bearer of the Mahuva APMC said that the situation this year is as bad as it was in 2018 when prices in Mahuva touched the Rs 100 per kg mark in the first week of December.