Why Nashik onion traders are on indefinite strike, how it may affect prices

livemint.com:

40 percent duty imposed on the export of onions. The Nashik District Onion Traders’ Association claimed that the duty would severely dampen the wholesale price, thereby affecting their earnings as well as the return on crop expected by the farmers. The duty was imposed in August, when data for the preceding month showed food inflation at an alarming 11.51 percent.

Government officials pointed out that such a measure was necessitated to keep the domestic stock of onion in check. The stock at present is already considered to be stressed to some extent, as over 30,000 hectares of summer crop was damaged due to untimely rains in April, and the overall area of onion acreage was reduced to 2.31 lakh hectares in this season as against 2.53 lakh hectares in the year-ago period. Exciting news! Mint is now on WhatsApp Channels. Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest financial insights!" Click here! Apart from the export duty, another point of grievance for the Nashik traders is the use of APMCs in the region to offload their ware by the National Cooperative Agricultural Marketing Federation (NAFED) and the National Cooperative Consumer Federation (NCCF).

The two government agencies, which procure directly from the farmers, offload their stock in the wholesale markets, thereby keeping the prices in check. Traders said they cannot compete with NAFED and NCCF in terms of cost, and are therefore unable to match their prices. An officer from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, however, told The Indian Express that the demand to bar the agencies from using the open wholesale markets is untenable as “we do not have any separate retail channels to offload our procured onions".