Centre to divert 50,000 tonnes of onions to Guwahati

The central government will divert 50,000 tonnes of onion from its buffer stock to Guwahati to control the prices of the vegetable.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has also written to the state government and union territories to purchase onions at Rs 18.13 from the centre in case they need it.

While the prices of onions are at a five-year low in most of the country, Guwahati has seen a spike.


In July, the government had procured 2.5 lakh tonnes of onion from farmers to create buffer stocks for 2022-23 meant to be sold in open market in cities and states where there is a rise in prices.

Onion production is estimated to have risen to 31.70 million tonnes in 2021-22 from 26.64 million tonnes in the previous year, according to government data.

The rabi harvest onions were procured by the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) from farmers through the Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) in the onion growing states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.