India importing onion, despite export rising 56% in April-July
India’s onion export rose by 56 per cent to 1.23 million tonnes in April-July this year, but the country has now gone in for import of the kitchen staple as retail prices have shot up to ~65-70 per kg because of tight supplies.
In value terms too, the onion export increased by 47.69 per cent to ~1,443.09 crore in the period under review, from ~977.84 crore a year ago, it said.
Last week, the government allowed state-owned agencies such as MMTC to import onions from countries such as Egypt and China to increase availability and cool retail prices that have skyrocketed to ~65-70 a kg level in many parts of the country.
According to data maintained by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS), the country has exported 1.23 million tonnes of onion during April-July of 2017-18, up 56 per cent from 788,000 tonnes in the year-ago period.
“Exports increased during April-July because of two reasons: Firstly, there was no minimum export price and second, the global prices remained much higher,” stateowned National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF) acting Director P K Gupta told PTI.
The exports helped farmers get better rates for their produce during the first quarter of the financial year when local prices had fallen sharply. However, with old stocks getting depleted and rise in local prices, the exports have slowed, he said. According to the DGIS data, exporters realised ~11,737 per tonne during April-July of this financial year.
MEP is the minimum rate below which export is not allowed. Onion MEP was scrapped in December 2015.
Despite demand from Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, the MEP was not imposed in August when retail onion prices had started showing an upward trend. “Now, retail onion prices have come under pressure because the old crop is getting exhausted. Also, new kharif crop arrival is less,” Gupta said. For instance, in the national capital, the average retail price of onion was ruling at ~15 per kg in April and gradually rose to ~30-35 in July and by October-end, the rate crossed ~50, according to the ministry data.