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Nafed to airlift 2250t onions from West Asia; quality of imported onions 'not good', says Maharashtra CM

The government today directed the National Marketing Federation to airlift 2,250 tonnes of onions from West Asia to tide over the shortages that have pushed up prices of the commodity to Rs 50 per kilogram in northern parts of the country.

Union Food and Supplies Minister Surjit Singh Barnala told newspersons that 150 tonnes of onions would be supplied daily in Delhi at a subsidised rate for next two weeks. By that time, new crop would hit the market, he said.

Barnala denied that the government is planning to enforce some stringent measures to check the hoarding of the commodity and said it was the responsibility of the state governments to regularise the supply of the essential commodities.

However, the central government's civil supplies officials strongly felt that there is the problem of hoarding of onions; otherwise a marginal fall in the onion production could not have led to such abnormal rise in prices, they argued.

According to official figures, onion production this year was around 3.6 million tonnes against last year's 4.2 million tonnes, a difference of only 600,000 tonnes. Besides, production of the kharif onion crop in Maharashtra has been reported as 300,000 tonnes more than last year's output of 700,000 tonnes.

The officials, on condition of anonymity, said the onions seemed to have assumed political overtones and ''we fail to understand why it happens so on election eve''. They suspected onion traders of having formed a cartel and resorted to hoarding the commodity, which can be stored for a long duration, to manipulate prices.

Small bulbs of onion have become so politically a live-wire issue that state governments are hesitant to engage in a major crackdown on hoarders and market manipulators, they felt.

On other hand, Delhi Civil Supplies Minister Purnima Sethi said they had not received any complaint of hoarding and there was no question of initiating any de-hoarding measures.

Ironically, West Asia, from where onions are being imported, used to import the commodity from India through the farm produce canalising agency NAFED till last year, officials said.

They said onion prices were low and almost static in the southern states at Rs 15 per kg in Bangalore and less than Rs 20 in Kerala and Tamil Nadu while the commodity is being sold at Rs 60 per kg at Shimla and Chandigarh. In some districts of Uttar Pradesh, the commodity rules as high as Rs 100 per kg.

The officials wondered why the domestic supply network is not being regularised to stamp out the disturbing variance in prices.

The Delhi government has stepped up the subsidised supply of onions in the capital by setting up one outlet in each of Delhi's 70 assembly segments.

Sethi said the state government has withdrawn the mobile vans selling onions. The government is selling the commodity at Rs 10 per kg at stationary outlets and Rs 15 per kg at 230 Mother Dairy sale-points.

The government has no plans to supply potatoes and other vegetables at subsidised rates, she added.

Meanwhile, shortage of vegetables at the wholesale market at Vashi in New Bombay pushed up prices; onions sold at a high of Rs 50-60 per kg today.

The prices, which saw marginal decline last fortnight on reports of likely imports to bridge the demand-supply gap, rose again since the imported onions have still not reached the major markets.

Onion prices have zoomed to Rs 50 in the last month owing to unseasonal rains at the producing centres causing severe damage to the crop. Besides onions, prices of many other vegetables have soared after unseasonal rains ravaging vegetable farms all over the country, according to S K Patil, secretary of the Vashi Wholesale Vegetable Merchants Association.

Potato prices are already at Rs 20 per kg, up from Rs 12 due to heavy floods in the northern potato-growing areas, especially Haryana.

Prices of most other vegetables have also risen. Lady's fingers are up from Rs 18-20 per kg to Rs 40. The normally cheap brinjals have become costlier at Rs 25. Tomatoes cost Rs 15-20, cauliflower Rs 20-25, cabbage Rs 20-25, snake gourd (parwal) Rs 30-35, beans Rs 25-30, bitter gourd Rs 30-40, and pumpkin Rs 25-30 per kg.

Cucumbers seem to have all but vanished from the market. When available, they sold at Rs 25 a kilo. The price of garlic has also shot up to Rs 50 a kilo.

Many restaurants in Bombay trying to cope with the scarcity of onions have started serving thin slices of radish in place of onion rings.

In Maharashtra, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi was urged by political parties to import 15,000 tonnes of onions in order to check its price.

Joshi said the quality of the imported onions is not always good. Various schemes for the benefit of farmers and consumers will also be discussed in the state Cabinet meeting tomorrow.

UNI