At a time when the onion prices are bringing tears to the consumers’ eyes, the Mandi Samiti of Dehradun has come forward to provide cheap onions at its premises. The chairman of mandi samiti Ravindra Singh said that 15 shops of Dehradun Mandi would provide onions at `35, 40 and 42 per kilogram from Saturday. He said that anyone can purchase onions from these shops from 10 AM to 1 PM barring Sunday.
The Mandi samiti’s decision comes in wake of a meeting which the District Magistrate Dehradun took with its members on Thursday. The prices of onions have skyrocketed in last 10 days with consumers forced to shell out Rs 70-80 for every kg in different mandis of the city. Agriculture experts are attributing increase in prices of onion on the unseasonal rains in the months of March and April due to which moisture entered the bulb causing it rot early.
Ravindra Singh said that Maharahstra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are the chief producers of Onion. The major production months of onion are from October to March and after March the onions stored in the cold stores are consumed. He said that this year the exports of onion were stopped late by the time the stocks had diminished alarmingly. Singh suggested that the Government should ban exports in the lean months to ward off possibility of increase in prices.
One of a wholesaler of Onion informed that prices are on higher side this time but said that sowing of early Khariff crop is good in states like Andhra and Karnataka and this is expected to hit market soon due to which the prices would be stabilised.