India's onion export dips by 52% in April

India's onion export slumped sharply by 52 per cent to 1,06,891 tonnes in April due to higher minimum export price (MEP) of the commodity, according to agri-cooperative major Nafed. The country had exported 2,25,026 tonnes of onion in the same period last year, it said.

"Exports have reduced as the onion MEP (cost and freight) in April was higher at $250 a tonne in the wake of rising retail prices," a senior official with the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (Nafed) said.

The trend of raising the MEP started from November 2009 after onion prices sky-rocketed in the domestic market. The MEP was around $200 in April 2009, he said.

Onion export is channelised through Nafed, which decides the MEP every month in consultation with 12 other state trading agencies and issues no-objection certificates to empanelled exporters.

According to official data, onion exports have reduced in value terms too to Rs 12,506 lakh in April from Rs 22,840 lakh in the year-ago period. However, the per unit value realisation was higher at Rs 11,699 per tonne as against Rs 10,150 a tonne in the review period.

The Nafed official further said, "The shipments are expected to improve in May as MEP has been reduced by $50 a tonne and domestic prices have cooled down."

Wholesale price in the major onion producing region of Lasalgaon in Maharashtra dipped marginally to Rs 615 per quintal as on May 7 from Rs 1,741 per quintal in January.

In the 2009-10 fiscal, the country's onion export rose marginally to 18.14 lakh tonnes, against 17.83 lakh tonnes in the previous year, the data showed. India exports onions to Bangladesh, West Asia, Singapore and Malaysia.