State’s largest onion producer losing out of demand as buyers head to Karnataka and MP
Maharashtra's Lasalgaon-, one of the largest onion growing regions in Maharashtra is facing a peculiar demand-supply problem from the North and the South. Bumper Onion production in Madhya Pradesh has impacted the supply in the North whereas good production in Karnataka has impacted Lasalgaon's supply to markets down South. This had led to an onion price crash in Lasalgaon as well as the entire Maharashtra.
According to the minister for state (Marketing and Federations), Sadhabhau Khot, this year Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh received a bumper onion crop. "So the traders from South and North rather than picking onion from Maharashtra, started buying it from Karnataka and MP instead. The proximity reduces their transport cost resulting into cheaper rates of onion to consumers and more profit for local traders. Therefore, we have announced the fret subsidy for the cooperative federations of the farmers in Maharashtra. Our recent measures will bring in positive change and slowly but surely the market will improve," said Khot.
The minister said that the onion growing farmers from Maharashtra who had stocked the old onion for long time in expectation of higher rates. "These farmers thought that during the festive season, onion prices will go up so that they would reap more benefits. The stocked onion is almost three lakh tonnes. Now, the fresh onion has also arrived in marker. And the life of old onion is about to end. Most of these onion started perishing. Onion are the perishable crops with limited shelf life. So farmers are forced to bring this stocked onion in market despite low prices in market," Khot said.
Vijay Jawandia, agriculture experts said that earlier Maharashtra and particularly Nasik onion was famous and more in demand due to its quality and taste.
"But other states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and even Rajasthan also have started producing onion. Their onion may not be good in quality like Nasik onion but they are fairly able to fulfil their own region demands respectively. On the other hand, Maharashtra is slowly losing it's dominance in onion market. Therefore, government need to understand the market and change the cultivation pattern to maintain the fair prices in market," said Vijay Jawandia, agriculture expert.
He said, "Maharashtra is the largest producer of onion in India with the market share of 29 per cent, followed by Karnataka with 22 per cent market share.''
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