Onion brings tears as price skyrockets to `70/kg in city

NEW DELHI: Both onions and apples are being sold at Rs 70/ kg in the national capital. The prices of onions have seen a leap in past few weeks. This has resulted in kitchen grievance for the households as the prices are too high for most of the middle class families to afford.

However, the spiralling onion prices due to supply shortage are proving difficult for the government to control.

Food and Civil Supplies Minister Imran Hussain on Friday reviewed the status of onion supply and prices in the backdrop of diminished supply.

Onion was quoted 25 per cent higher on Friday at Delhi’s Azadpur Mandi, a major market of the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC). Several other markets in the country too witnessed a steep rise in onion prices on Friday amid reports of crop damage and delay in arrivals of new crop from Maharashtra, Karnataka and other southern states due to heavy rains recently.

Poor supply has also pushed wholesale onion prices to a fouryear high. At Lasalgaon Mandi, onion sold for Rs 1,500-5,100 per 100 kg on Friday, as per the APMC rates published on the Maharashtra State Agriculture Marketing Board website. According to trade sources, this was a plateau reached after a significant rise of nearly 40 per cent a day ago.

In a bid to restrict onion export, the government has set its minimum export price (MEP) at $850 FOB (free on board) per tonne.

According to a Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) notification dated 13 September, all varieties of onions, as described in the notification, will be permitted a letter of credit subject to a Minimum Export Price (MEP) of $850 FOB per metric tonne till further orders.

“We are findning it very hard to buy onions from our locality as they are sold at 70 Rs /kg . The govenment should act swiftly as this will ruin out kitchen budget,” said Hina, a resident of Delhi.