With Turkey putting exports on hold, onion prices may rise again

Suresh Deshmukh, a commission agent operating in Dindori’s wholesale market in Nashik district, said the government of Turkey had banned exports as onion prices had sky-rocketed there. “They have done what India did to control the domestic prices there,” he said. The central government had banned exports from India in September to control domestic prices.

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This ban, Deshmukh and other traders said, might push the prices up in the near future, but a steep rise has been ruled out by many. Kunal Korpe, an onion trader operating out of Pune’s wholesale market, said prices of imported onions have corrected from Rs 70-80 per kg to the present rate of Rs 50-60 per kg. “This correction is mainly because of the higher demand for the local produce, whose arrivals have improved,” he said.

Korpe foresaw another fall in prices of imported onions as around 4,500 tonnes are expected to arrive this Friday. The bulb, at present, is trading at around Rs 5,000 per quintal at most wholesale markets in Nashik, while retail prices continue to be around Rs 100 per kg. Meanwhile, rabi sowing across the country has seen a steep jump, which points to a bumper crop post March. Data by the Ministry of Agriculture shows that by the end of November, 2.78 lakh hectares of area had come under onion transplantation, as against the 2.31 lakh hectares of last season.

Better prices have seen farmers going for onions over the rabi crop, but trade sources have pointed out that this will lead to prices collapsing once the crop hits the markets.