Due to the protests by farmers in Nashik district of Maharashtra, there is a lot of bottleneck in the supply of onions in the mandis. Due to this, the wholesale price of onion has gone up by 37 percent. Due to this, the possibility of onion prices in the retail market has increased.
In this way, the wholesale price of onion has reached a two-week high. The price of onion is already very high for the last few weeks, in which case the increase in wholesale price may cause more trouble.
Price in Lasalgaon
On Monday, the price of onion reached Rs 37.29 per kg at Lasalgaon Mandi in Nashik. It is the biggest spot onion market in Asia. The markets were closed on Tuesday due to Dussehra. According to the Business Standard newspaper, onion supply in Lasalgaon has fallen by 137 tonnes, the lowest level this year. Hansraj Vadghule, a leader of the Swabhimani Shetkari organization, told the newspaper, "Many small peasant groups have come out on the protest against the limit of onion holding and ban on exports."
Why the condition deteriorated
Jayadatta Sitaram Holkar, chairman of the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee, said, 'Onion supply situation has changed a lot now. The farmers now have very little onion left over from the previous season. Due to excessive rains and prolonged monsoon, the yields this time have suffered a lot.
He said that the quality of onion that is coming in the market is also poor. Prices of onion have already been very high, so now there is not much scope for farmers to increase prices. In January, the price of onion in the wholesale market was only Rs 3 to 4 per kg, which increased to Rs 15 per kg in July. But this year, the monsoon was late and sowing of new onions was delayed, due to which the price of onion reached Rs 45 per kg in Lasalgaon and the retail price reached Rs 60 per kg in many parts of the country.
On September 15, the government increased the minimum support price due to the continuous increase in the price of onion. After this, the limit of onion storage was fixed and export was also banned. The limit has been set to keep 50 tonnes of onion for wholesale traders and 10 tonnes for retail shoppers.
