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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
Angry over the drop in onion prices, farmers on Thursday briefly stopped auctions at the Lasalgaon APMC, the country's largest wholesale market of the key kitchen staple in Maharashtra's Nashik district. The farmers demanded removal of the 20 per cent export duty on onions and an aid of Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,200 per quintal of the produce, the APMC officials said. Onion prices have been witnessing a decline since the last few days. However, as the prices dropped drastically at the Lasalgaon Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC), onion farmers stopped the auctions and registered their protest on Thursday, the officials said. Around 1,500 vehicles of onions arrived for auction at the APMC on Thursday. In the morning session, the minimum price was Rs 800 per quintal, maximum Rs 2,900 per quintal and an average Rs 1,900 per quintal, as per the officials. As the auctions began, the auctioneers announced the prices at Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,500 per quintal. Angry over it, farmers stopped t
The Centre on Tuesday said the fifth bulk shipment of 720 tonnes of buffer onion will reach the national capital on November 21 as part of its market intervention to control prices. This marks the continuation of the government's initiative, started last month, to transport buffer onion from Maharashtra to Delhi via railways for the first time. So far, 4,010 tonnes have been dispatched for retail sale at Rs 35 per kg. "Another shipment of 720 tonnes, fifth in the series, has left Nashik yesterday and likely to reach Delhi by 21st of November," according to an official statement. From the fourth bulk shipment of 840 tonnes that arrived on November 17, the government has allocated 500 tonnes to Mother Dairy, 190 tonnes to NCCF and 150 tonnes to Nafed for retail sale across Delhi-NCR. The government noted that bulk shipments have significantly impacted onion prices in Delhi, both at wholesale and retail levels. Besides Delhi, similar initiatives are underway in other cities. The ...
The government's subsidised onion sale initiative, launched on September 5, has led to price drops in major cities within days, the consumer affairs ministry said on Saturday. In Delhi, retail onion price fell from Rs 60 to Rs 55 per kg, while Mumbai saw a decrease from Rs 61 to Rs 56 per kg. In Chennai, the retail price reduced from Rs 65 to Rs 58 per kg, the ministry said in a statement. The government initiated the sale of onions at a subsidised rate of Rs 35 per kg through mobile vans and outlets of NCCF and NAFED. The program, which began in Delhi and Mumbai, has since expanded to other major cities including Chennai, Kolkata, Patna, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, and Guwahati. Responding to the growing demand, the government has decided to increase the quantity of subsidised onion and expand distribution channels to include e-commerce platforms, Kendriya Bhandar outlets, and Mother Dairy's SAFAL stores. The government has also initiated wholesale disposal of onion in major cities. It
The government on Friday scrapped a minimum price threshold that it had set previously for exports of onion as it looked to pass on the benefit of international glut to Indian farmers. The government had previously fixed a USD 550 per tonne as the minimum export price (MEP), which essentially meant farmers could not sell their produce overseas at lower than this rate. A DGFT notification issued on Friday removed the MEP with immediate effect. The move comes ahead of assembly elections in Maharashtra, a key onion producing state. The move would help promote exports of the commodity. "The Minimum Export Price (MEP) condition on Export of onions is removed with immediate effect and until further orders," the directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) said in a notification.
Besides Delhi-NCR, cooperative body NCCF on Friday said it will retail onion at a subsidised rate of Rs 25 per kg in other states too in order to provide relief to consumers from the high prices of the key kitchen staple. On behalf of the central government, the National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India (NCCF) started retailing onion at a subsidised rate from September 9 at 100 different locations in and around Delhi. "In addition to Delhi-NCR, we have increased our coverage to all states from Jammu and Kashmir to Kerala," NCCF said in a statement. The cooperative body has been selling onion online for the last two weeks through the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) platform through Paytm, MagicPin and MyStore in Srinagar, Jaipur, Varanasi and Delhi-NCR, it said. So far, 416 vans are plying and have sold 2,219.61 tonnes onion in the retail markets, it added. Retail onion prices have shot up in the last two weeks up to Rs 80 per kg in different parts of the country