Supply shortage pushes up local onion prices

Prices of local onion increased in the last few days after supply shortage of domestic variety, traders said.
"We're getting lower supplies of local variety in the last week. The wholesale price of local onion was between Tk 700 and Tk 800 per maund while the price is now Tk 900 to Tk 1000 per maund," Narayan Chadra Shaha, a wholesaler of onion of Shyampur market told the FE.
He said the wholesale price of a kilogram of local onion was between Tk 19 and Tk 20, which reached Tk 25 to Tk 26 Tuesday.
The variety of Pabna, Ishwardi, Goalanda, Chuadanga is now available and variety of Faridpur and Meherpur will hit the market soon.
Mazharr, a retailer of Mohammadpur said: "I bought local onion at Tk 22 per kg and this week we are buying at Tk 30 per kg."  
A kg of local onion was sold between Tk 35 and Tk 40 on Sunday while the price was between Tk 26 and 30 Tk seven days back, according to traders.
The country produces 1.6 to 1.7 million tonnes of onion annually while the demand is around 2.0 million, according to the Department of Agriculture Extension.
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