Onion prices crash below Rs 12 per kg in Lasalgaon on high supplies

As a hedge against this, the government is making efforts to diversify sowing

Onion prices at Maharashtra’s Lasalgaon mandi (near Nashik, the trend setting one) have crashed with rising arrivals. On Monday, average prices fell below Rs 12 a kg, to Rs 11.8, an eight-month low. In early January, it was a little over Rs 35 a kg.

Prices rose after last August, with delay in kharif crop arrivals and estimates of lower production in 2017-18 to 23.4 million tonnes, one mt less than year before. The peak was on January 5; they’ve fallen since.

Major Singh, head of the directorate of onion and garlic research in Pune, said: “Crop arrivals are now at a