Prices of onions, pulses, cotton hit 3-year low

Prices of daily essentials such as onions, arhar, moong, and urad are trending at their lowest levels in three years, and that of yellow peas in six years. Also, soyabean and cotton prices have hit their lowest levels in two years.

This comes amid a surge in imports of pulses and cooking oils, and lower onion exports, squeezing prices to multi-year lows, according to market experts.

"Heavy imports of yellow peas have been suppressing prices of almost all the locally grown pulses in India," said Rahul Chauhan, director, iGrain India, a commodity research company.


"A large number of countries have started supplying record production of pulses to Indian consumers. Australia had grown a bumper crop of chana last year for India, while this year, it has a record crop of lentils." Prices of key kharif crops including most pulses, cotton, and soyabean are currently ruling 10%-20% below the minimum support price (MSP) levels.

Africa has harvested large amounts of tur or arhar for supplies to India while Myanmar had a large urad crop. Even Brazil, which has recently started cultivating urad for Indian consumers, is estimated to have a crop of more than 80,000 tonnes.

Onion prices at the benchmark Lasalgaon market in Nashik are currently at their lowest levels in three years. "Bangladesh is our largest buyer for onions. However, our exports to Bangladesh have been negligible during the last six months," said Vikas Singh, vice president, Horticulture Export Promotion Council.

Meanwhile, government agencies National Co-operative Agricultural Marketing Federation (Nafed) and National Co-operative Consumers Federation (NCCF), which had procured onions in a bid to stabilise prices, have since started moving buffer stocks to the market to meet increased demand during the festive season, further impacting prices. "The government selling has put pressure on onion prices," said Singh.

Nitin Kalantry, a pulses processor from Latur in Maharashtra said, "The damages inflicted by the excess rainfall will increase the proportion of inferior quality crops, whose prices are lower. This leads to an increase in the range of prices of best quality and lower quality crops."