Not only consumers but the onion sellers too are shedding tears nowadays. Skyrocketing prices in last few weeks have, instead of fetching good returns for the businessmen as appears from outside, caused losses amid lowered demand, due to poor quality of supply and bad weather.
An onion vendor at Nagababa Khatal Ganjendra Nath said, “We are facing acute losses with the price hike of onions. I purchase the commodity from Pandra wholesale market at Rs47 and sell it with a profit of just two to three rupees. Moreover, the rainfall is destroying my stock as onions get putrid soon during this season.”
Earlier the sellers use to make a profit of 8 to 10 rupees for every kilo of onion which has come down drastically in recent times. “With the onset of monsoon season vegetable prices started shooting up. Despite being the month of Shravan, where the demand of vegetables, especially onions is less, prices have continued to soar as a result of which the customers have substituted onion with garlic as the price of onion has crossed Rs 55 mark in past few weeks,” said Birju Nath another vendor at Daily Market.
He further added, “The profit margin in this commodity is so less that we cannot lower the price to attract the customers. The concept has became outdated that the onion lovers will have them irrespective of it price. The hotels where consumption of onion is more they have also restricted it purchase. ”
Many hoteliers have brought down their use by half since the prices have soared up. Kush Bhatia owner of Kaveri Resturant said, “We cannot afford to suffer losses so we are using it in smaller quantities for preparing dishes. We have completely stopped offering it as a part of salad.” Reason behind this hike in prices is lowered supply of onions in the city. Representative of Federation of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce Industries (FJCCI) Sambhu Gupta said, “Bihar and Nasik are the two main sources of onion in the city.
We are not getting onion from Bihar due to flood. The productivity in Nasaik has reduced so the onions coming at increased rate which is resulting in high prices.” Anil Gupta a wholesaler of onion in Pandra, Ranchi said, “Good amount of onion is wasted in the process of transportation. We have to pay for the waste material too. These are the basic reason for rise in price. The price will decrease once the flood situation is improved in Bihar.”