National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED), the body under the Government of India that is entrusted with market intervention viz-a-viz agricultural commodities in the country had warned the States about the impending shortage of onions.
As onion prices in retail markets in Tamil Nadu were ruling between Rs 170 to Rs 180 per kg on Wednesday, a senior NAFED official told The Pioneer that the agency had procured more than 50,000 tones of onions from farmers in Maharashtra and Gujarat earlier this year.
“But the State Governments does not show any interest in procuring the stock from us. Onion being a perishable commodity, we were not in a position to keep the stock for long and exhausted the commodity. There was no communication demanding extra stocks from the States,” said the official who did not want his name to be quoted.
He pointed out that the unexpected heavy rain in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh resulted in crop failure and this could be the reason for the sudden hike in onion prices.
“The Government of India has put orders for procuring onion from Egypt and Turkey. The first consignment is expected by December 10 and the subsequent shiploads would reach Mumbai port on December 17, 24 and 31. We hope the prices would start getting stabilized with the arrival of the stocks from Egypt and Turkey,” said the official
He said that onion was being sold at Rs 20 per kg even in the month of October and there was no hint of any shortage in the commodity other than the reports about the crop failure.
Office bearers of Koyambedu Vegetable Wholesale Merchants Association said that thisn is the first time in the last four decades the price of onion was making a hole in the pockets of the buyers.
“Though we had seen prices of commodities like tomato, chillies, shooting up, this is the first time the name of onion itself bring tears in the eyes of housewives,” said Abdul Khader, secretary of the association.
The Department of Horticulture has drawn up plans to bring in an additional 25,000 acres of land under onion cultivation in the State. This is in addition to the 50,000 acres of land where onion is cultivated as of now, said a department spokesman.