The Centre’s decision to extend relaxation norms for onion imports till January 31 has a spiralling effect on the onion market. The onion prices at Lasalgaon, Asia’s biggest wholesale onion market are depleting fast and farmers are in agitation mode.
In October this year, the average onion price at Lasalgaon had touched ₹5,000 per quintal as the supply of good quality onion dipped. However, since then prices have dipped with the centre’s intervention to import onion and ban export. The model price of red onion was ₹1,800 per quintal in Lasalgaon on Friday while the price of summer onion dropped to ₹1,400 per quintal.
The government has extended relaxed norms for onion imports for one and a half months till January 31 next year to control prices. In October the government had relaxed the conditions for onion import.
“In the last three months onion prices have come down so fast that farmers are unable to recover the cultivation cost. The extension of relaxation norms till January 31 essentially means that the government is not going to lift a ban on onion export till then,” said Bharat Dighole, President, Maharashtra State Onion Grower’s Association told BusinessLine.
He said that the association is going to launch an agitation to demand the lifting of the export ban. India exported 11,49,896.85 MT of fresh onion to the world for the worth of ₹2,320.70 crore ( 324.20 USD millions) during the year 2019-20, according to the APEDA. Dighole said that many farmers in the Nashik region are now drifting to other crops because of the government’s discouraging policies.
“The government has a chance to prove that it is pro-farmers by lifting the ban on onion export. The government and its ministers are saying that farmers must get bigger markets to sell their produce but at the same time they are not ready to accept the market rules for onion crop” Dighole added.
Onion traders predict that price of bulb crop would further come down in the next few days. In some parts, the retail price of onion has come down to ₹15-20 kg. The arrival of onion from Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh is rising and at the same time onion from onions from Egypt, Turkey and other countries has hit the domestic market.