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Adding to consumers woes, the retail price of onions, up 28 per cent over the last month and nearly 50 per cent over the year in New Delhi, might rise further if the second tender floated by the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed) on Thursday also fails to attract bidders.
First roundThe first tender, floated on July 24, for imports of 10,000 tonnes of the bulb from countries, such as Pakistan, Egypt and China, did not receive a single response by August 7, the last date for filing the tender.
Officials, however, are optimistic that the re-floated tender for the same quantity in 500-tonne units will see interest.
“The first round received no bidders, but we expect to have bidders to cover the entire 10,000 tonnes in this round. We are looking mainly toward Pakistan since it’s easier to ship via road,” said Bijender Singh, Vice-Chairman, Nafed.
The Centre had directed the co-operative to import the onions to stabilise domestic prices which have risen as much as 105 per cent in Mumbai to ₹43/kg from ₹21 at the same time last year, according to government data. It also directed the Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), which had procured 10,000 tonnes of the bulb under the Centre’s price stabilisation fund, and is supplying 250 tonnes of onions per day to the Capital region, to import.
Kharif outputA failed tender could see traders holding on to stocks to engineer a shortage and inflate prices.
Kharif output may also be hit with lower sowing in key growing States like Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh/Telangana.
“The monsoon has been a problem across large parts of these States and the drought conditions will impact yields. There is delayed sowing in Maharashtra, while planting is not up to the mark in the other two,” said RP Gupta, Director, National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation, Nashik.
India is estimated to have produced 189 lakh tonnes of the bulb in 2014-15.
Almost 40 per cent of the onion crop is produced in the Kharif season, with 20 per cent accounting for the early Kharif crop which is currently being harvested across South India and servicing markets in the region and eastern India.
Fresh arrivals of late Kharif onions will hit markets by early-October.
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