Onion traders made Rs 150 crore in four days

Pune, August 24 –  In the four days from August 12 to 15, five lakh quintals of onions moved out of enormous storage facilities in Nashik and elsewhere in the country to flood the wholesale markets, TOI has learnt.

 

After creating an artificial shortage by hoarding the crop since July, traders, big farmers and dealers in several cities raked in a whopping Rs 150 crore when their stock hit the markets on August 12. This triggered a price rise in the retail markets that stung badly.

 

Since that day, people have been buying onions that usually cost about Rs 12 per kg at Rs 50 per kg. In the days that followed, prices peaked to Rs 80 per kg.

 

Traders who had bought the crop from farmers at an average rate of Rs 1,500 per quintal in June and July sold it for Rs 4,500 per quintal in those four days, TOI found out after interviewing many onion farmers, exporters, middlemen, representatives of the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC), National Agriculture Cooperative Marketing Federation of India, National Horticulture Research and Development Foundation and government officials.

 

When state officials inspected the godowns in Lasalgaon and Pimpalgaon in Nashik district, the stock had already been sent to the wholesale markets, sources said.

 

Traders said there was no wrongdoing on their part. "The charges against us are false. The crop is perishable and risks in storing it are very high," said Sohanlal Bhandari, president of Nashik District Onion Traders' Association.

 

TOI