India's onion exports rose marginally to 17.72 lakh tonne during April-November of the ongoing financial year and total shipments are expected to surpass the last year's level, a senior government official said.
The country had exported 17.32 lakh tonne of onion during April-November, 2016-17 while the total outbound shipments stood at 34.92 lakh tonne in the full financial year.
"The shipments in February-March of 2017-18 are expected to be more because the government removed the floor price and requirement of letter of credit," the official said.
There has been an increase in onion export in the last few weeks and total shipments in the entire 2017-18 is likely to be more than the last year, the official added.
The minimum export price (MEP) was scrapped on February 2 in order to protect farmers from sharp fall in onion rates. MEP was in place between November 2017 and January 2018.
Currently, onion prices at Lasalgaon in Maharashtra, the world's biggest wholesale market for the bulb crop, have declined below Rs 11 per kg due to huge arrivals, as per the official data.
Besides promoting exports, the government is looking at all options to ensure mandi prices do not fall further and avoid farmers from distressed sale, he said.
Right now, late kharif crop of onion is being harvested and some farmers are even getting early matured rabi crop hoping to get better price.
According to Agriculture Ministry's estimate, onion production is pegged lower by 4.5 per cent to 21.4 million tonne in the current 2017-18 crop year due to lower acreage.
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