A day after Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stressed upon the need for promoting the export of agricultural commodities in the Union Budget, Commerce Ministry on Friday said it has removed the minimum export price (MEP) on onions.

“The requirement of Minimum Export Price (MEP) on export of onions has been removed. All varieties of onions can now be exported. We are taking all measures to promote exports of agriculture products,” Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said in a tweet.

The notification issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade is expected to curtail volatility in onion prices in the country.

Apart from emphasising on the need for promoting agri products exports, Jaitley announced a ₹500 crore Operation Greens scheme to improve the round the year availability of staple vegetables such as onions, potatoes and tomatoes round the year.

On January 19, a notification issued by DGFT brought down MEP — the least price at which a commodity can be exported — imposed on onions to $700 per tonnes from an MEP of $850 per tonnes imposed in November last year.

First advance estimates of horticultural production issued by Union agriculture ministry last month projected the onion production in 2017018 to be 21.4 million tonnes, about 1 million tonnes lesser than the production in the previous year.

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