Supply crunch sends onion prices skyrocketing to ₹80/kg
NEW DELHI: In the wake of tomatoes prices seen to be skyrocketing in the national capital, now onion prices have also begun soaring, making both the staple food items nearly inaccessible to Delhi's poor households.
Retail onion prices have touched Rs 80 per kg in the national Capital, owing to tight supply. A similar spike has been seen in neighbouring cities as well, according to trade data.
Onions in other metro cities are being sold at Rs 50-70 per kg, depending on the quality and locality, the data showed.
Earlier this year, the prices of tomatoes had soared to around Rs 100 per kg in retail markets of the city. Now, onion prices have risen to troubling levels.
“At Delhi's Azadpur Mandi, Asia's largest vegetable market, onions were sold at over Rs 50-60 per kg. The same onion is being retailed at Rs 80 per kg today,” a trader said.
Wholesale and retail prices have reportedly reached to such levels because of lower arrivals from the key onion growing states, such as Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.
In Maharashtra's Lasalgoan mandi – Asia's biggest market for onions – arrivals dropped by 47 per cent to 12,000 quintal today, from 22,933 quintal on the same day a year ago.
Onions at Lasalgoan are being sold at Rs 33 per kg today, as against Rs 7.50 per kg a year ago, according to data maintained by the Nasikbased National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation.
Meanwhile, the Central government has asked stateowned Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation of India to import 2,000 tonnes of onion and directed National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation and Small Farmers' Agribusiness Consortium to source 12,000 tonnes locally to boost supplies.
Since the beginning of August, Tomato prices have shot up by about four times, when they were being sold at about Rs 25 per kg in the markets of Delhi-ncr.
The Delhi government has also directed surprise inspection of retail markets in different parts of the city to check hoarding and black marketing.