State-owned MMTC has issued a contract for buying an additional 4,000 tonnes of onions from Turkey, an official statement said on Wednesday. This would be in addition to over 17,000 tonnes — 11,000 tonnes from Turkey and 6,090 tonnes from Egypt — for which the orders have already been placed.

Besides, the Department of Consumer Affairs has directed MMTC to come out with three more tenders to import 5,000 tonnes of the bulbs each. While two of them would be country-specific — from Turkey and the European Union — the third would a global tender, the statement said.

The government has provided certain relaxations in the new tenders. Apart from expanding the size range to 40mm-80mm, it has allowed consortium bidding and exporters can offer shipment in multiple lots.

Additionally, fumigation condition relaxations that were earlier provided till November 30 have now been extended till this month-end. This is expected to further increase participation and competition, leading to price reduction, the statement said.

The department has also constituted a coordination committee to ensure that the entire process of import and distribution is streamlined to ensure timely arrivals and movement of onions and sale by States. The committee is holding meetings on a daily basis with participation from officials of MMTC, NAFED, CONCOR and associated Ministries and Departments.

The Ministry of Shipping has also assured that it will provide priority landing/docking for ships containing the imported onions and will also be appointing a nodal officer at JNPT, Mumbai, to ensure speedy arrival and onward distribution/dispatch.

The Government also plans to procure domestically produced onions and distribute them across all consuming States per the demand placed by them. On Tuesday, the government halved the stock holding limit on onions to 25 tonnes on wholesale traders and 5 tonnes on retail traders. Importers will be exempted from these stock limits for imported stock, the statement added.

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