Humble onion gives elite apple the blush

Now, onions are costlier than apples. The cost of one kilo of apples is between Rs50 to Rs70. However, onions are being sold at rates between Rs70 to Rs80 per kg. And, there is no sign of its price coming down.

Last month, Asia’s largest onion market Lasalgaon received only 1.33 lakh quintals of onions (a quintal is 100kg) against 3 lakh quintals in August 2012.

This September, the market received less than 50,000 quintals against 2.7 lakh quintals last year. Actually, by September every year, onion price starts receding because of abundant supply of onions and stock left from the year before.

Rajshree Patil, a resident of Nerul, Navi Mumbai, said, apples have become cheaper than onions for the first time. “Apples are being sold at Rs40 to Rs70 per kg while onions from Rs70 to Rs80. Onion price is continuously soaring.

There is no sign of it falling. It has badly hit my household budget. We want to skip onions but we cannot do without them. Onion is an important ingredient in non-vegetarian dishes,” she said.

This year because of excessive rainfall onions failed to mature properly and that hit supply. On the other hand, the old stock of onion dried up.

“We imported 5000 tonnes of onions from Egypt, but they were sold out within a week. Prices will continue to remain high for some time. We are getting onions from Hubli in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh,” said Ashok Walunje, director of agriculture product market committee (APMC) .

NCP chief and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said, “Whenever farmers get a lower price for their products nobody does anything for them. So, let them get a  good price for some time. My farmers should not suffer because of the export ban. Most of the time, farmers are deprived of getting a good price,” he said.

“It will take two or three weeks to ease onion prices,” he tweeted.

The Congress party blames Pawar for the high price of onions. “This is a deliberate ploy of Pawar to increase onion prices and disturb the arithmetic of the Congress in New Delhi, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh state polls.

“Most of the onion traders and onion market committees are either owned by members of the Nationalist Congress Party or are indirectly controlled by them.
So, Pawar is the main person behind this volatile situation. He is indirectly helping the Bharatiya Janata Party. This is nothing but Pawar politics,” said a Congress leader, who requested anonymity.

However, Nanasaheb Patil, president of Shetkari Kruti Samiti, told dna that Pawar was not to be blamed.

“If there is no onion production, then from where will Pawar bring the onions? The drought of last year, followed by continuous and heavy rainfall damaged onion crops. There is less supply against the demand, therefore prices are shooting up. The buyer has to bear with this for some time for the benefit of farmers,” he said.