Average wholesale onion rates at Lasalgaon, the country’s biggest wholesale onion marketplace, crossed the `3,800 per quintal mark for the very first time this season, the highest in the last six months. Retail onion rates have gone up to `50 per kg as against earlier rates of Rs 35-40 per kg in big cities like Delhi and Mumbai due to crop damages brought on by heavy rainfall.
Narendra Wadhavane, secretary, Lasalgaon Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) attributed the rise to the drop in supplies due to the incessant rains that had hit quite a few states in the last fortnight. On Wednesday, typical wholesale rates at Lasalgaon touched Rs 3,700 per quintal and have been `3,800 per quintal on Tuesday. Last month, rates have been in the variety of Rs 1,450 per quintal very same time.
“The early Kharif crop which was to hit the market on Dusshera has been damaged due to heavy rains and the summer onion stock has been both exhausted and damaged due to rains. It is not possible for farmers to visit the fields which are still in water due to the rains and therefore the arrivals have dropped to some 5,400 per quintals on a daily basis from 15,000 quintals to 20,000 quintals earlier last month,” Wadhavane stated. Prices must stabilise after the late Kharif crop starts to arrive in markets from mid-November, he stated.
PK Gupta, director, National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF) termed this as a short-term phenomenon. There have been heavy rains in onion increasing belts of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan causing harm to the early Kharif crop, he stated. However, the region below onion cultivation has gone up by almost 25% this season and the late Kharif crop appears excellent in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana. — fe bureau