The Union Minister stated that 1 Lakh MT of Onions was the target but since the Onion growing season had ended across the world and international prices were high, Orders were placed strategically in small lots and over a period of time to ensure international prices don’t increase drastically. The Union Government had planned the imports based on the initial demand and has already contracted almost 40,000 MT of Onions which will arrive in India before the end of January. So far, 12,000 MT of Onions have arrived in the country and is ready for distribution among the State Government.

Shri Paswan further added that the main concern is to protect the interest of consumers and for ensuring that, the domestic supply is being augmented with imports so that prices are moderated and overall availability is increased. He said that there has to be a coordinated effort between the Central and State Governments and the consumers to ensure this objective is achieved. Therefore, the Union Minister exhorted all State Governments to honour the demands they had placed initially and may even go beyond their initial demand and distribute the imported Onions in their respective States to ensure that prices are moderated.

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Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said that the government has decided to import one lakh tonnes of onions to control onion prices. MMTC will make the imported onions available for distribution in the country from November 15 to December 15 and Nafed has been entrusted with the responsibility of distributing the onions to every part of the country.

In a bid to curb onion prices, the Cabinet Secretary held a high level meeting with the Secretary of Consumer Affairs to review the onion crisis in many parts of the country.

According to the Department of Consumer Affairs, officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and Consumer Department, as well as officials of important government agencies associated with the Ministry of Food, have been directed to go to Turkey and Egypt and speed up the effort to import onions from there.

Simultaneously, MMTC has been asked to import large quantities of onions from Dubai and elsewhere so that the shortage of onions in the market can be removed quickly.

Advice to keep the mandis of Rajasthan open to ensure onion supply

The governments of Delhi and Rajasthan are also being asked to ensure that all the mandis remain open from November 9 to November 12, so that the onion supply is not interrupted. Unseasonal rains and floods in many states have damaged the onion crop, which is expected to reduce its production. To make up for this, the government has decided to provide facilities for buying onions from four countries – Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan and Egypt.

India has reached 2,500 tonnes of imported onions.Onion prices in bulk were at Rs 15 to 50 per kg in Kolhapur mandi in the mandis of Maharashtra, the major onion producing state, while it was priced at Rs 20 to 45 per kg at Jodhpur mandi in Rajasthan.

Delhi onion wholesaler Rajendra Sharma said that the daily arrival of new onions from Rajasthan has increased in Delhi, and its daily arrival is expected to increase further, which will bring down the prices.

According to sources, around 2,500 tonnes of imported onions have reached India and 80 are coming to Cantner, out of which 70 containers are coming from Egypt and 10 containers from Netherlands.

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Representatives from Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Intelligence Bureau, Delhi Police, NAFED,  DGFT, Ministry of External Affairs, Delhi Government attended the meeting. The representatives briefed the group about the prevailing scenario with respect to essential food items. It was informed by representatives of Agriculture that arrivals of Kharif onions have started and prices have since shown stable to declining trend. These are likely to increase in the coming days/ weeks. The following key decisions were taken based on the deliberations:

To augment availability of Pulses across the nation, proper policy interventions may be recommended at the proper time.

All the Chief Secretaries will be advised again to hold regular meetings with wholesalers, traders, importers, exporters etc. of onions, pulses, edible oils & oilseeds etc. at State and district levels especially during the festive season i.e. upto December, 2019.

The Committee of Police of NCR States should hold regular meetings under the Chairmanship of a Senior Delhi Police officer to keep watch on hoarding of stock by the traders near the State borders of Delhi and take suitable action against them.

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