India exports onion at record price amid food inflation

Food inflation may be a bane for the economy, but India appears to be capitalising on the shortage of onion and has exported the commodity at a record Rs 23 a kg in the beginning of 2010. The export price is almost at par with the domestic sale price, experts say and attribute the high realisation in the overseas market to increased global demand.

Food inflation, which has eased from a decade’s high of about 20 per cent in December, stands at 17.56 per cent for the week ended January 23. In the past, export prices had touched a record Rs 22 a kg in October 1998, when domestic prices of onion were at Rs 70 a kg. But this time, there is hardly any difference between domestic and export prices as onion is currently available at Rs 20-24 a kg.

According to the data maintained by the Nashik-based National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF), the country had exported 58,360 tonnes of onions in January 2010, down nearly 49 per cent from the year-ago period. But in October 1998, only 537 tonnes were exported with a price realisation of Rs 22,059 per tonne as the government had banned export in mid-October and it continued till January 1999.