Indian ban on export pushes up onion prices

FE Team | Published: October 08, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Jasim Uddin Haroon
Prices of onion, one of the widely consumed items during the month of Ramadan, are rising sharply in the local markets due mainly to ban on its export by a neighbouring country.
However, traders said good harvest of onion at home this year has put a break on the abnormal hike of its prices.
This year, local farmers produced around 0.50 million tonnes of onion, which is almost half of the total demand.
However, sources at the city's Moulavibazar Paikary Bebosayee Samity (Moulavibazar Wholesale Merchants Association) said that the prices of onion rose by Tk 7.0 over a kilogram (kg) in the past few days at the wholesale level resulting in the sharp rise in its prices in the retail markets.
On Sunday, the prices of onion in the wholesale market were Tk 39 a kg (Indian variety) and Tk 43 (local variety).
The prices of onion were at Tk 32 (Indian variety) and Tk 41 (local variety).
On the day, the onion prices are varying between Tk 45 and Tk 50 each kilogram in the retail markets.
"It is really a bad news for the consumers that the prices of onion rose by Tk 7.0 a kg," Abdur Razzak added.
The prices of onion in India at the retail level stood at 22 rupees per kg.
The Indian government imposed the ban on export of onion for a period of 15 days until October 15.
Earlier, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India proposed a ban on export of onion.
The neighbouring country imposed the restriction on the onion export following inundation of onion fields in Gujrat, a major onion growing Indian state, by rainwater over the past few days.
Prior to the ban, India recently raised onion price to US$ 500 each tonne from $450. It was $300 each tonne several months ago, importers said.
They also said onion price soared at the beginning of holy month of Ramadan mainly due to rise in import prices.
Currently, around half of local demand for onion is being met locally and the rest through imports mainly from India, traders said.
The total annual demand for onion is 1.2 million tonnes. Local consumption of onion is around 90,000 tonnes a month, but the demand rose to more than double this quantity during the fasting month of Ramadan.