Wholesale onion price dips to 5 per kg in Mumbai

Mumbai, feb 9 – The unpredictability of onion prices achieved a new seasonal record on Saturday. A surfeit of onions has arrived in the Vashi wholesale market, causing wholesale prices to fall to their lowest this winter. Onion is selling for Rs 5-8 per kg in the APMC market. However, consumers are still paying anywhere between Rs 15-28 per kg in neighbourhood stores.

 

This trend is being witnessed almost every year. Either crop shortage—or hoarding—causes stocks to be held up in growing areas or local mandis from June to October. Once this cache is released, prices drop to a seasonal low. On January 26, 2011, TOI had reported how the onion price fell to Rs 4 per kg in Lasalgaon, Nashik. Even then, the bulb was selling for Rs 25-45 per kg in retail markets in Mumbai.

 

This time too, customers are hardly reaping the benefits of the fall. At Lokhandwala in Andheri, onion sold for Rs 18 per kg on Saturday, while in Breach Candy old stock—which is preferred by customers—cost Rs 28, an astronomical price by current standards. In Matunga, good quality onion was available for Rs 25 per kg. Only the state government's fair price shops have been selling the bulb for as little as Rs 11 per kg since the past three days.

 

Ashok Walunj, director of the APMC's onion-potato market, on Saturday said, "The price of onion in the wholesale market is between Rs 5-8 per kg. Every day, about 150-200 trucks of onion are reaching the Vashi market. This time, production is high and onion is reaching from Pune, Khed, Jejuri, Ahmednagar, Solapur, and Kolhapur and other states too. Despite the fall in prices, there is not much demand for onion."

 

Garlic prices have also cooled down in the wholesale market. With the arrival of new garlic from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, the price has fallen to Rs 10-30 per kg as against Rs 70-80 a fortnight ago. Traders said that this year, garlic production has increased threefold.

 

TNN