Farmers in Nashik district claimed that they got 5 paise per kg rate.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkar said he met Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharama on Saturday over the sharp decline in the price of onions.
To arrest steep fall in onion prices and protect farmers interest, government on Friday decided to extend export duty benefits to onion for promoting its outbound shipments.
"Sitharaman ji has launched Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) under which when onions will be exported, 5% of grant will be given to exporters," Gadkari said. "This grant will be given to onion exporters as a coupon, he/she can use it for imports or can withdraw as money," the minister assured. "So I hope because of this MEIS scheme more exporters will come forward to export onions, " he added.
Wholesale prices at the Asia's biggest onion market at Lasalgaon in Maharashtra crashed to Rs 6 per kg on Friday compared to Rs 48.50 per kg in the year-ago period, official data showed.
The duty benefits for export of both fresh and stored onions would be available till December 31, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday. 'The Ministry of Commerce will provide 5% MEIS (Merchandise Exports from India Scheme) for encouraging export of fresh/chilled onions. Available from now till 31 December 2016," Sitharaman tweeted. "Expected quantity of onions exported to be approx 3-3.5 lakh MTs (tonnes). Hopefully will help to export more onions from India," she tweeted further.
Under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS), the government provides duty benefits at 2%, 3% and 5% depending upon the product and country. Onion prices have crashed due to estimated higher production at 202 lakh tonnes in 2015-16 crop year (July-June) as against 189 lakh tonnes in 2014-15 crop year.
Farmers in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, which are among leading onion-producing states, took to distress sale of the bulb due to higher supply and unsold stock. The situation has worsen to an extent that farmers in Nashik district have claimed that they got 5 paise per kg rate for their produce.
It may be noted that onion exports went up 33% to Rs 2,362 crore in the first 11 months of 2015-16 on higher realisation of sales. India exported 10,86,072 tonnes of onion for Rs 2,010 crore in 2014-15.
With PTI/ANI inputs.
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