India’s Onion Production

So far in this current financial year (2025-26), only April saw a moderate inflation of 2.85 per cent in onions and since then it has seen a deflation in every succeeding month.

The Centre on Thursday kick-started subsidised sale of onions at Rs 24 per kg in Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad to make the key kitchen staple available to consumers at affordable rates. After flagging off mobile vans for the sale, Union Food Minister Pralhad Joshi said about 25 tonnes of onions from the buffer stock will be sold in these cities through cooperative agencies National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed), National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India (NCCF) and Kendriya Bhandar. Joshi told reporters that onions will be sold at Rs 24 per kg at places where retail prices are higher than Rs 30 per kg. The subsidised onion sale will be extended to Chennai, Guwahati and Kolkata from Friday and will continue till December. The all-India average retail price of onions was Rs 28 per kg on Thursday, while in some cities the rates were above Rs 30 per kg, according to official data. Currently, the government has a buffer stock of 3 lakh tonnes of

Last month's lifting of an export duty of 20 per cent, imposed in September 2024, came too late as the export market had already been captured by the Pakistani crop

The Union Agriculture Ministry has suggested that district administration should be involved in procurement of onion to ensure transparency and check irregularities in the purchase process. In a written reply to Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Food and Consumer Affairs B L Verma said, the Department of Agriculture constituted a fact finding committee to look into allegations of irregularities in the procurement of onions under Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) by National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED). The department, vide OM (office memorandum) dated 4th November, 2024, "conveyed the suggestions that concerned district administration should be involved in the procurement process to ensure transparency and local oversight, to adopt biometric based verification of farmers, and payment to registered farmers bank account through Aadhaar Enabled Payment system", he added. Onions for PSF buffer are procured by NAFED and National Cooperative Consumers' ...

Onion prices are expected to further cool down in the coming days as the arrival of fresh kharif crop has begun, a senior consumer affairs ministry official said on Wednesday. Currently, the average all-India retail price of onion is ruling at Rs 54 per kg and the prices have declined in the past one month after the government's subsidised sale of onion in key consuming centers, the official said. The government is disposing of the buffer stock onion in the retail market at a subsidised rate of Rs 35 per kg in Delhi-NCR and other cities to provide relief to consumers from high prices. The government has a buffer stock of 4.5 lakh tonne of onion, of which 1.5 lakh tonne has been disposed till date. According to the ministry official, the buffer stock onion is being transported to key consuming centres through railways for the first time and is helping boost the supplies. "We will continue with the bulk rail transportation of buffer onion till we exhaust with the stock and prices ..

Second train carrying 840 tonnes of onions from Nashik reached Delhi on Wednesday

Due to trader hoarding and farmers' reluctance to sell their stock, the government has only achieved less than 10 per cent of its 500,000-tonne onion buffer stock target

Traders have started hoarding stocks in anticipation that the government may relax its measures to control prices

The Centre has so far procured 25,000 tonnes of onion grown in the 2023 kharif season for maintaining a buffer stock, Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said on Monday. The government is procuring onion to maintain a buffer stock and use it for market intervention to boost domestic availability and keep prices in check. The government has raised the buffer stock target to 7 lakh tonnes for the 2023-24 fiscal, against the actual stock of 3 lakh tonnes last year. According to the Secretary, the government had procured 5 lakh tonnes from last year's rabi season and is purchasing 2 lakh tonnes of kharif onion as the buffer stock target has been raised. "About 25,000 tonnes of kharif onion has so far been procured from mandis. The procurement is underway," he told PTI. Of the 5 lakh tonnes of rabi onion lying in the buffer stock, the government has offloaded 3.04 lakh tonnes of onion through cooperative Nafed and NCCF in the market to check prices. As a result, the all-India

Retail prices of garlic are in the Rs 180-300 per kg price bracket, depending on the quality of produce in different markets. Wholesale prices, on the other hand, are somewhere between Rs 150-260

The total sown area for onion in Maharashtra has dropped by 36% which has brought down the supply

Nepal has started to face an acute shortage of onions, days after neighbouring India slapped a 40 per cent export tax on the vegetable, a media report said on Wednesday. India last week imposed a 40 per cent tariff on the export of onions till December 31 to restrict overseas sales. The move comes amid anticipation of a price rise ahead of the festival season when demand for most commodities goes up, The Kathmandu Post newspaper reported. The new tariff has severely affected Nepal as several traders in Kalimati Fruit and Vegetable Market -- the Himalayan nation's largest wholesale market for agricultural products-- reported a sudden scarcity of onions. There is a severe scarcity of onions in the Nepalese markets now. No onion shipments have been delivered since Sunday, and the remaining stocks were sold out by Monday, Binay Shrestha, Information Officer for the country's largest produce bazaar, was quoted as saying in the report. Shrestha said that onions cost Rs 54 per kg two week

Traders here on Monday said they have decided to close onion auctions indefinitely in all the Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs) in Maharashtra's Nashik district to protest against the Centre's decision to impose a 40 per cent duty on the export of the kitchen staple. In view of the decision, the onion auctions remained closed at most of the APMCs in the district on Monday, including at Lasalgaon, the largest wholesale onion market in India, sources said. Traders claimed the central government's decision to impose 40 per cent duty on the export of onions till December 31, 2023 will adversely affect the onion growers and its export. The decision for the indefinite closure of onion auctions here was taken on Sunday in a meeting of the Nashik District Onion Traders Association, its president Khandu Deore said on Monday. "In case onions are brought to an APMC, as the decision will take time to reach farmers, then the auction of those onions will be conducted and thereafter t

Though India has a huge stock of onions, the high proportion of bad-quality onions due to excessive summer heat this year had led to an increase in the prices of good-quality onions

There is no ban on exports of onion and India has shipped the commodity worth USD 523.8 million during April-December 2022, the commerce ministry said on Sunday. It said that only the export of onion seed is restricted. "Government has not restricted or prohibited the export of onions," the ministry said in a statement. In December 2022, onion exports rose by about 50 per cent to USD 52.1 million. During April-December this fiscal, the exports rose by 16.3 per cent to USD 523.8 million. Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal in a tweet on Saturday stated that there is no ban on onion exports from India to any country and misleading statements suggesting the contrary is unfortunate. The statement came after a tweet by NCP leader Supriya Sule on February 25 on onion exports.

India has exported 87,000 tonnes of onion in the January-February period after the ban was lifted in view of good kharif crop estimates

Rush to sell even below cost of production amid fear of spoilage as Lasalgaon mandi is closed

In metros, retail price of onion was ruling at Rs 120 /kg Kolkata, at Rs 102/kg in Delhi and Mumbai and at Rs 80/kg in Chennai, as per the data maintained by the consumer affairs ministry

The government's plan to import around 17,000 tonnes of onion is insufficient to meet the deficit

Incentivise storage to ensure steady availability