Fresh arrivals lead to fall in price of small onion

Price of small onions that touched a peak of ₹130 a kg last month dropped to ₹50 a kg at the wholesale vegetable market due to the arrival of fresh produce from Maharashtra.

Unseasonal rains in January and February caused extensive crop damages and drop in arrivals led to an increase in price at the Nethaji Daily Vegetable and Fruit market in the city.

While the first-quality small onion was sold at ₹130 a kg, second quality onion was sold for ₹80 to ₹100 a kg. Traders said that there is a sharp increase in the number of onion-laden trucks to the market in the past one week resulting in drop in prices.

“All the old stocks were cleared and fresh arrivals started pushing the price down”, said G. Ibrahim, a wholesaler.

He said that the cultivation of onion begins in October every year and harvesting commences in February. “Onion harvested during the season is stocked and sold for 10 months during the year”, he added. Many traders said that with more arrivals, the price of onion will drop further. “Even we can expect the price to drop to ₹20 a kg”, they added.

On Friday, small onions were sold between ₹30 and ₹60 a kg, while big onion was sold between ₹20 and ₹40 a kg at the wholesale market.

At Uzhavar Sandhai in Sampath Nagar, the small onion was sold between ₹50 and ₹55 a kg while the rice of big onion was sold at ₹45 a kg.