Mint Explainer: Why has India imposed 40% export duty on onions?
Rabi crop, reducing shelf life of the kitchen essential. This sparked fears of supply tightness by September.
All-India average retail onion prices rose to ₹30 a kg on Saturday from ₹20 at the start of the year, according to the consumer affairs department. Crisil, a rating agency, said in a recent report that retail onion prices are expected to hit ₹60-70 a kilo next month.
Leading agricultural economist Ashok Gulati told Mint that onion prices are expected to increase and may even hit ₹100 a kilo by the end of September. Prices at Lasalgaon, Maharashtra, the hub of India’s onion trade, rose by 50% to ₹2,050 a quintal on Saturday from ₹1,370 on 2 August.
Prices were around ₹950 a quintal two months ago. The government recently announced it would sell 300,000 tonnes of onions from its buffer stock on the open market to keep prices in check.
India’s onion exports rose 65% on-year to a record 2.5 million tonnes in 2022-23. It is the biggest onion producer in the world – with Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat contributing more than 70% to the output basket – followed by China and Egypt.
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