Govt reviewing onion export ban, as local prices fall
Weeks after the imposition of a ban on onion exports, the government is assessing the situation and is likely to reconsider the decision to stem sharp fall in the mandi prices of the vegetable.
“The government may allow exports of onion through cooperatives,” a trade source said. Sources said with the arrivals of kharif harvest as well as imposition of exports ban on December 7 till March 31, 2024, the mandi prices at Lasalgaon, Nasik, Maharashtra, the hub of the country’s wholesale trade has fallen to Rs 1500/quintal on Tuesday from around Rs 3700/quintal prevailed prior to the imposition of shipment ban.
A trader said that onion kharif harvest due to high moisture content cant be stored, the arrivals are increasing thus pulling down the prices. Farmers and traders have been demanding a lifting ban on exports so that prices do not plummet.
“The mandi prices have fallen sharply and its currently prevailing below the cost of production,” Balasaheb Misal, former director, Manmard (Maharashtra) mandi board and an onion farmer, told FE.
According to the department, the modal retail prices of onion declined by 50% to Rs 30/kg on Monday from Rs 60/kg on December 8 when ban on export was announced.
Retail onion inflation rose by a steep 86.46% in November as retail prices in several cities touched Rs 90/kg last month because of delay in arrival of kharif crops and unseasonal rains impacting the crops in Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Meanwhile an official said that the government’s intervention of procuring kharif onion and disposing them simultaneously in the wholesale and retail points have brough down average prices by 30%-35% in the last one month.
The government agencies – farmers’ cooperative Nafed and National Cooperative
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