Onion prices slip 40% in a week on increased supply across the country

Onion prices slumped for the fifth day in a row on Tuesday, a decline of 40 per cent in a week, on consistent increase in arrival of new-season crop in wholesale markets (mandis) across the country.
 
Data from the Nashik-based National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation showed onion was trading at at Rs 24 a kg on Tuesday in the benchmark Lasalgaon mandi in Nashik district of Maharashtra. That’s a fall of four per cent since Monday and 40 per cent from Rs 40 a kg on January 20, a level not seen since November 6, 2019. It continues to sell at Rs 40-44 a kg in retail markets across the country.
 
“There has been a sharp increase in arrivals in the last few days as farmers have intensified harvesting of matured crop. Importantly, farmers at local mandis in Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have increased supply, reducing demand pressure on Lasalgaon. Apart from that the government’s ban on onion export has pulled prices down,” said Narendra Wadhavane, secretary of the Agricultural Produce Market Committee at Lasalgaon, described as Asia’s largest spot wholesale onion market.

Lasalgaon had seen Rs 86.25 a kg on December 16, translating to Rs 140 a kg in retail trade. Many hotels, restaurants and other such business consumers had stopped serving raw onion to consumers and stopped its consumption as a vegetable ingredient. Daily arrival at Lasalgaon is now over 2,000 tonnes, from 1,100 tonnes on December 16. Harvesting of onion is already four to six weeks delayed, due to a proportionate delay in sowing of its seed and replanting of saplings after water logging in fields due to monsoon-traggered flooding. With sunny days having reduced soil moisture, farmers have hastened the harvesting.