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Onion Prices
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
Amid a steep fall in prices, the Maharashtra State Onion Growers Association has urged Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to convene a special meeting urgently at Lasalgaon Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), the largest market for the crop in Asia, to find immediate and long-term solutions. A delegation from the association had recently submitted a written request to the chairman and secretary of Lasalgaon APMC, urging them to extend a formal invitation to the chief minister for such a meeting. The association also sent an official email to Fadnavis reiterating the demand. The letter, signed by Maharashtra State Onion Growers Association founder-president Bharat Dighole and Nashik district president Jaydeep Bhadane, highlights the acute financial distress faced by farmers due to plummeting prices. According to the association, onion farmers across Maharashtra are currently getting only Rs 800 to Rs 1,200 per quintal, while the average production cost is at least Rs 2,500 p
Food prices in India saw a sharp rise in 2024 due to an unusually severe heatwave, with onion and potato prices jumping by more than 80 per cent in the second quarter of the year, according to a new study. The study, led by Maximilian Kotz of the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre and involving researchers from the European Central Bank, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the UK's Food Foundation, investigated 16 extreme weather-driven food price shocks across 18 countries between 2022 and 2024. It found that many of these events exceeded all historical precedents before 2020 and were strongly influenced by global warming. "In India, the price of onions and potatoes jumped by over 80 per cent in the second quarter of 2024 after a heatwave in May, a 'largely unique event' that was made at least 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer by climate change," the researchers said. The year 2024 was the hottest on record and the first with a global average temperature 1.5 degrees Celsius ab
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday urged the BJP-led Centre to remove the 20 per cent levy on onion exports and provide relief to the grower of the bulbous vegetable. In a letter to Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Pawar highlighted the issues concerning farmers from Nashik district, where onion is grown in large quantities. The onions grown here (in Nashik) are available in other states of India and also exported in large quantities. As of today, onions from the summer yield have been exhausted and the fresh crop has reached various (Agriculture Produce) Market Committees in Maharashtra, Pawar wrote. Due to the arrival of a large stock of onions, farmers are now in distress as they are forced to sell their produce at a much lower rate since they have yet to receive any minimum support price, said Pawar. They are selling onions at an average of Rs 2,400 per quintal, he said. Unseasonal rains and changing climate have already caused a huge dent in the ...
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 ..
The government on Tuesday said it is keeping a close watch on onion prices and has decided to offload more quantities from buffer stock in retail markets to stabilise rates amid temporary supply constraints. According to government data, the retail price of onion is Rs 67 per kg in the national capital while the all-India average retail price of the kitchen staple is Rs 58 per kg. "The government has decided to upscale the onion disposal in order to address temporary constraint in onion supply observed in certain markets in the past 2-3 days owing to festival season and closure of mandis," an official statement said. Co-operative NAFED has indented two more rakes for Delhi-NCR and one for Guwahati this week. Similarly, dispatch through road transport would also be upscaled to ensure the availability of onions in the market. "The availability of onions would be further accentuated by more supplies from NCCF, both through rail and road transport," it added. Moreover, the government
The government has intensified its efforts to check onion prices by stepping up the sale of buffer stock in wholesale markets, following a spike in retail prices after the recent removal of export duty. Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi Khare on Monday said the Centre has begun offloading onions from its buffer stock in wholesale markets of Delhi and other key cities, with plans to expand subsidised retail sales nationwide. "We anticipated a price surge after lifting the export duty. With our 4.7 lakh tonne buffer stock and increased kharif sowing area, we expect to keep onion prices in check," Khare told reporters here. The government plans to increase retail sales of onions at a subsidised rate of Rs 35 per kg across India, focusing on cities where prices exceed the national average. Official data shows retail onion price in Delhi at Rs 55 per kg on September 22, up from Rs 38 per kg a year ago. Prices in Mumbai and Chennai have reached Rs 58 and Rs 60 per kg, respectively. Sinc
Onion prices rose at the Lasalgaon Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) in the district on Saturday following the Union government's decision to scrap the minimum export price (MEP) and halve the export duty, sources said. The Lasalgaon APMC is one of the biggest onion wholesale markets in the country. The prices of the kitchen staple in the APMC rose by average Rs 433 per quintal, sources said. "The removal of MEP is certainly a good decision. The market has increased a bit. We think there should be no export ban. The imposition and removal of such things affects the market. Now MEP has been removed, but farmers' onion produce is running out," said Balasaheb Kshirsagar, Lasalgaon APMC chairman. "There is no clarification yet about whether export charges have been reduced by 20 per cent or 40 per cent," he told PTI. As many as 425 vehicles or 5,182 quintals of onion arrived at the market on Saturday. The prices ranged from Rs 3,700 to Rs 4,951 per quintal and Rs 4,700 per
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
Average onion prices in the national capital continue to rule high at Rs 58 per kg on tight supply, the government data showed. According to the data compiled by the Department of Consumer Affairs, the All-India average price of onion on Tuesday is Rs 49.98 per kg, while the modal price is Rs 50 per kg. The maximum price of onion is Rs 80 per kg and the lowest is Rs 27 per kg. On September 5, the Centre began the first phase of retail sales of onion at a subsidised rate of Rs 35 per kg to provide relief to Delhi-NCR and Mumbai consumers from rising prices of the kitchen staple. NCCF and NAFED, which are maintaining a buffer stock of 4.7 lakh tonne onion on behalf of the government, have started retail sale through their stores and mobile vans. Last week, Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi Khare noted that the outlook for onion availability and prices in coming months remains positive as the kharif (summer) sown area has increased sharply to 2.9 lakh hectares till last month against
Delhi Food and Supplies minister Imran Hussain has directed officials concerned to take effective measures to keep prices of onion and other essential commodities under control, according to a statement issued on Monday. During a meeting, the minister cautioned the food and civil supplies department to be vigilant about the surge in prices of onion and other essential commodities in Delhi, it said. The minister directed food and civil supplies department to instruct the market intelligence unit to depute teams in markets to ascertain the retail prices of essential commodities, the statement issued by the minister's office, said. The minister also instructed the marketing intelligence team to evaluate the difference between wholesale and retail prices of commodities. Officers present in the meeting said average retail prices of onion in Delhi have been stable for some time and are likely to remain stable in the near future as well, it stated. Hussain directed the Supplies departmen
To contain rising prices of onion, the Centre will kickstart from Thursday retail sales of the bulb at a subsidised rate of Rs 35 per kg through mobile vans and NCCF retail shops in Delhi-NCR. Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi will launch the retail sale of onion from Krishi Bhawan, an official statement said. The sale through mobile vans will be undertaken at 38 locations including Krishi Bhawan, NCUI complex, Rajiv Chowk Metro Station, Patel Chowk Metro Station, and parts of Noida, it said. The market intervention is aimed at improving local supplies and curb rising prices of the key kitchen staple, which is ruling over Rs 60 per kg in the national capital. NCCF has maintained a buffer stock of onion procured directly from farmers of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. The same onion will be offloaded for retail sale at a subsidized rate of Rs 35 per kg in order to protect consumers from exorbitant prices and prevent windfall gains for intermediaries. By directly eng