Imported onion arrival brings down wholesale prices by Rs10/kg

NEW DELHI: With arrival of imported onions in the wholesale market, prices of the kitchen staple today came down by Rs 10 but retail prices continued to remain high at Rs 70-80 per kg.


According to traders, around 25 trucks carrying 1,500- 2,000 quintals of onions have arrived at the Azadpur Mandi.

"With the additional arrival of onions from Afghanistan prices today fell by Rs 10 per kg to Rs 50 per kg in the whole sale market," Onion Merchant Traders Association President Surendra Budhiraj said.

Mother Dairy outlets in the city, which are selling onions at around Rs 60 per kg, is contemplating to reduce the prices from tomorrow after the fall in the prices at wholesale market, an official said.

Prices of kitchen staple have fallen a day after the government hiked the minimum export price (MEP) of the Onions to USD 900 per tonne.

MEP is is a benchmark price below which onion cannot be exported.

Traders also attributed the fall in wholesale onion prices to decline in prices of the bulb in Lasalgaon Mandi in Nashik, which sets the price trend across the country.

According to National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF) data, prices of the politically sensitive commodity at Lasalgaon in Nashik, decreased by Rs 10 per kg to Rs 47 per kg today.

Earlier this week, Food Minister K V Thomas had said that arrival of onions is good. "Our calculation is that prices will come down by end of this month or early next month."

Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation had risen for the third straight month to 6.1 per cent in August, driven by a whopping 244.62 per cent jump in onion prices on an annual basis.