Onion prices shoot upto Rs 80 per kg in Delhi. The prices have soared up across the country in the past 2-3 weeks. Prices of pulses have also gone up considerably in the past three weeks.
Fears linger whether the retail price of onion will touch Rs 100 a kg or even surpass that as supply remained deficient.
Data shows arrival of onion in Delhi on Friday was about 1,300 tonnes, which is over 50% of the total arrival in all mandis in Maharashtra. The arrival at Delhi's mandis was nearly 900 tonnes exactly a year back when the wholesale price was half of the prevailing prices.
Observers said that the unprecedented increase in prices is artificial and traders want to maximize profit before government imports huge quantity of onion, which is likely to happen by mid September.
Meanwhile, sources in the consumer affairs department said that so far only three states - Odisha, Telangana and
"The price has gone up substantially after there was news that the first effort to import 5,000 tonnes of onion did not happen. So, traders are holding up their
On Friday, average quality of onion was selling at Rs 5,400 a quintal in Asia's largest onion mandi, Lasalgaon while high quality produce was available around Rs 5,800. In Pimpalgaon, onion was trading at Rs 4,900 a quintal.
Arrivals have declined significantly in the last one month. In Lasalgaon, onion arrivals fell to 240 tonnes on Friday from 1,021 tonnes on July 21.
On the other hand, government effort to import both urad and arhar pulses have failed to moderate the prices. In fact, price of arhar has increased by Rs 15-20 across cities in the past three weeks, while urad, moong and masoor also haven't seen any drop in price.
(Image credits: Indiatimes)