Mumbai: As onion prices climb down and supply burgeons, the Maharashtra government has appealed to the Centre to lift the ban on exports and also remove stock limits imposed on wholesalers and retailers.
Both Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and the minister for food and civil supplies, Chhagan Bhujbal, have shot off two separate letters to the Centre, citing the increase in onion arrivals which has reduced the demand pressure.
Last September, the Centre had imposed a ban on exports of all varieties of onion in a bid to tame prices, which had doubled in the domestic retail market since July 2019.
It also had imposed stock limits of 25 metric tonnes on wholesalers and 2 metric tonnes on retailers, to facilitate the release of stocks and prevent hoarding.
''It is observed that the stock of imported and local varieties of onion is available in ample quantity in the market, causing a drop in both, wholesale and retail prices.
Therefore, the Centre needs to treat the state's request for onions as cancelled,'' Thackeray had said in his letter to Union Minister for Consumer Affairs Ram Vilas Paswan.
According to the daily compilation by the state department of food and civil supplies, wholesale price of onion in Nashik was Rs 1,800 per quintal, as against Rs 2,700 per quintal a week ago, Rs 3,667 per quintal a month ago and Rs 3,200 per quintal three months ago.
On the other hand, the bulb was retailing at Rs 35 per kg against Rs 44 per kg a week ago, Rs 54 per kg a month ago and Rs 46 per kg three months ago. At Lasalgaon in Nashik district, onion prices were Rs 86.25 a kg on December 16, translating to Rs 140 a kg in retail.
Bhujbal, guardian minister of Nashik, told The Free Press Journal, "Onion arrivals from Lasalgaon and other parts have sharply increased and prices have fallen.
Therefore, the Centre needs to lift the ban at the earliest.'' Further, he informed, there were no takers for imported onions from Egypt and Turkey.
''In view of the increase in supply from and outside India, wholesale and retail prices are coming down. Therefore, to keep the market stable and to increase the onion supply, the stock limit imposed on retailers will have to be increased, to stabilise the market.
Besides, Maharashtra being the leading onion producing state, such stock limits restrict trade and disturb the supply chain, affecting prices all over the country,'' Bhujbal wrote to the Union ministry of consumer affairs.
