UP onion prices to stay high, thanks to hoarders

Onion prices in the retail market of Uttar Pradesh are not coming down despite import from neighbouring states and the arrival of the new crop. The reason: large-scale hoarding of the commodity by traders in the state.

The price difference between the wholesale and the retail market is more than double at present. According to wholesale traders, retail prices are unlikely to come down in the next one month.

At present, the prices in the wholesale market are hovering around Rs 650-700 per quintal, whereas retail rates are as high as Rs 1,200. Interestingly, retail rates were as high as Rs 1,500 a fortnight back. However, with the start of the Maharashtra crop since early this month, rates in the wholesale market have started coming down.

According to Faizan Ahmad, president of the Fruits and Vegetable Traders Union, there has been a large-scale hoarding of onion in UP as well as in the Delhi market in January and February, when the rates in the retail market had reached as high as Rs 2,000.

The situation started easing in the beginning of March when fresh stocks started coming from Maharashtra and the new crop in the state hit the market. U K S Chauhan, chairman, NAFED, too has expressed concern over this gap in prices in the wholesale and retail markets.

However, the traders in the retail market have been saying that big players are influencing the rates and they were forced to buy onion at a higher price. Unorganised retailers in the vegetable markets do not have own storage and hence were forced to make purchases from the mandis in lesser quantity every day. "We are treated as retailers in mandis and hence we also get onion at a higher price," said one retailer.