Onion farmers in Nashik might hold up the new onion stock and bring only old onion to the market as the average price of the bulb crop reached ₹2,500 per quintal in Pimpalgaon Baswant (Nashik) APMC.

Onion prices on the rise on reports of damage to stocks

In Asia’s biggest onion market Lasalgaon, the average onion price was ₹2,150 per quintal and the APMC received about 2,295 quintals summer onion on Wednesday. Farmers expect onion prices to rise further in the next few days.

State’s onion hub

“Rains have damaged crops in the fields and stored onions as well. Farmers must not flood the market with new onion as it will result in a price fall. The onion price is expected to rise in the next few days and farmers who have already suffered should not hurry over selling the new stock,” said Bharat Dighole, President, Maharashtra State Onion Growers’ Association. He added that onion prices would continue to rise as there is a shortage of onion in the market.

Demand for small onions from S-E Asia comes to exporters’ rescue

Maharashtra has a 33 per cent share of India’s onion production, and Nashik is the State’s onion hub. The Association has appealed to farmers to use the available onion stock judiciously.

Dip in supply

“Farmers will not get much benefit even if onion price rises further as they have already incurred huge losses. More than half of the stored onion has been sold at a low price and during lockdowns, onion prices were lowest. Now we will try to at least recover production cost,” said Dighole.

Last year, in October, supply of onion in the wholesale market declined and onion prices were soaring at Lasalgaon and other markets. In many places, onion prices touched ₹8,000 per quintal. Traders anticipate that it will take more than one-and-a-half months for the new onion to come to the market and till then the price would continue to appreciate.

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