Onion prices again touch Rs 70/kg on supply crunch

Prices will remain high as the crop from Maharashtra is about to exhaust, says official

Onion prices have again touched Rs 70 per kg, rising by Rs 10 per kg, in the retail market in the national capital because of lower supplies in the wholesale market.

Traders said onion prices are ruling at Rs 60 per kg in the wholesale market as supplies have come down substantially in the last one week.

Street vendors charge anything between Rs 70-80 for one kg of onion in Delhi, depending on the locality and quality of the bulb, a key ingredient in most food items.

"Supply of onions to Azadpur Mandi has come down by 30-40 per cent, as now the market is receiving around 900 tonnes of onions daily against 1,200-1,300 tonnes during the last week," Onion Merchant Traders Association President Surendra Budhiraj told PTI.

He added that onions in the wholesale markets of major producing states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are about to exhaust, pushing the prices and affecting the supplies in the national capital.

But, in the last few days two-four trucks of onions from Afghanistan have arrived in the market, Budhiraj added.

At Lasalgaon in Nashik district of Maharashtra, a major producing region, prices have risen by almost Rs 10 per kg to Rs 55 per kg yesterday, and supplies have come down to 4,300 quintal from 6,130 quintal last week, according to National Horticulture Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF) data.

"Prices will remain high as the crop from Maharashtra is about to exhaust, whereas farmers and traders are going to keep supplies of new crop under stress to maintain high level of onion prices," a senior official of NHRDF said.

Meanwhile, Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation rose for the third straight month to 6.1 per cent in August, driven by a whopping 244.62 per cent jump in onion prices on annual basis.