NEW DELHI: The Centre has procured 5.06 lakh tonnes of onions for disposal through e-sales, e-Nam auction and bulk sales as also retail sale at Rs 25 per kg from NAFED and state cooperatives to protect the consumers from the recent hike in the prices due to delay in arrival of the Kharif crop.
The proactive measures taken by the Government has started showing result as onion prices in benchmark Lasalgaon market declined from Rs.4,800/qtl on 28.102023 to Rs.3,650/qtl on 03.11.2023, a decline of 24%. Retail prices are expected to show similar decline from the coming week.
The Department of Consumer Affairs said its onion drive is parallel to its intervention in June when tomato prices shot up due to supply disruptions caused by rains and white fly infestation. It had intervened in procuring tomatoes through NAFED and other agencies from the producing states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and supplied at a highly subsidised rates to the consumer in major consumption centres. Tomato retail prices were brought down from the peak of Rs 140 per kg in the all-India average retail price during the first week of August to around Rs 40 per kg by the first week of September 2023.
To control the seasonal price volatility between rabi and kharif crops, the government maintains onion buffer by procuring the rabi onion for subsequent calibrated andd targeted release. This year, the buffer size has been raised to 7 LMT from 2.5 LMT in 2022-23. Till date 5.06 LMT of onion has been procured and the procurement of balance 2 LMT is in progress.
###
