Onion prices soar, no end in sight for about a month

Avtar Bhat

A wholesale onion merchant looking for customers in Kanak Mandi, Jammu on Sunday.  -Excelsior/Rakesh
A wholesale onion merchant looking for customers in Kanak Mandi, Jammu on Sunday. -Excelsior/Rakesh

JAMMU, Aug 30: Despite the Government deciding to import onions from other countries its price will continue to pinch the common man for a month or so as there are remote chances of prices coming down in the near future.
Like other parts of the country,  rising prices of onions have become a cause of concern for common man in J&K State also as retailers at various places are maintaining their monopoly by charging the prices at their sweet will as the Government has failed to maintain its control on the rate.
Due to failure of the Government to maintain proper check on the retailers some of them taking the advantage of crisis are fleecing the customers by pulling the wool over their eyes. This is happening in various areas of the city where some retailers are selling the same quality of onion at different rates.
Though the Government says that there were no crisis of onion in the State and hike in the rate was a reflection of trend in national market, the facts are altogether different as in J&K the onion is also being sold from Rs 60 to 70 and Rs 80 to Rs 85 in the retail market.
There is total monopoly of retailers in the market and no one questions them. A half a dozen retailers selling onion in the same market do not have the same rate. While there is no difference in the quality of the vegetable which has become a centre of attraction for every consumer at present one retailer sells it for Rs 60 while the others sell the same for Rs 70.
When the consumers sought to know the reasons for the difference in prices, the retailer selling the onions for Rs 70 claimed that theirs is of superior quality and it has no wastage while apparently it seems that the quality of onion being sold for Rs 60 a kg is much superior than that sold for Rs 70 a kg.
There are reports that in some parts of the city and its outskirts the onion is sold by retailers for Rs 80 to Rs 85 a kg also due to lack of proper check and control of the Government on the same.
Admitting that there was a reflection of the trend in the national market, in J&K market too otherwise there were no such crisis few days back, Minister of CAPD and Tribal Affairs Ch. Zulfkar told Excelsior that Government is monitoring the situation and soon the control order on onions will be issued to maintain proper check on the prices.
Concerned over so exorbitant hike in prices of onion in retail at some places in Jammu members of business community said that in J&K large quantity of onions come from Pakistan and hence it should not have impacted the trend in the national market and prices should have been cheaper here to some extent.
The members of business community especially dealing in onions in Ware House, Narwal Mandi and Kanak Mandi here, the hub of business in the State are of the opinion that the prices will come down by a month or so after the onion from Karnataka and Rajasthan reach the market.
The main cause of the hike in prices of onions was that the crop was destroyed due to untimely rains in Nasik, Maharashtra which is the largest onion producing area of the country. This was followed by the delay in harvesting of onion crop from another main cultivating state Karnataka, said Ajay Gupta an onion trader of Narwal Mandi.
He said the onions from Nasik  generally reached the market by July but this season it perished due to heavy rains. The prices were under control up to July end as the onion of Alwar Rajasthan was available in the market but after it finished and no supply as per demand was available from Nasik Maharashtra coupled with delay in crop harvest from Karnataka, the prices sky-rocketed suddenly. Earlier the onion was sold for Rs 30 to Rs 32 in the market, he added.
He said it is a simple economic term that when the demand increases and the supply is less, the prices rise.  There were 20 to 25 mandis in Maharashtra where from onion is supplied to rest of the country and when instead of 10,000 tones of onion only 2000 tones reach market there will be crisis, he added.
He said Nasik onions were sold in Jammu for Rs 60 to Rs 65 in wholesale. However prices came a bit down with the import of onions from Pakistan which was sold for Rs 48 to Rs 50 in wholesale. But it has lot of wastage and quality wise it is not so good as of Nasik, he added.
But crisis will be over after the new crop comes from  Karnataka and Alwar Rajasthan reaches the market. This will be followed by Gujarat onion. Moreover the decision of Union Government to import of onion can also tide over the crisis to some extent he added.
Maintaining that  crisis will be over within a month or so, Munish Kumar, secretary Ware House Traders Association and main wholesale supplier of onions in Ware House said that after the new crop from Karnataka reaches the market by next month, the prices can come down to a great extent.
He said that importing onion will not make much difference as it will take lot of time in reaching the country and even can perish in the way. The difference in demand and supply has been the cause of price hike and importing from Afghanistan cannot make any difference too, he added.
He said the hoarders have also no role to play as alleged because due to less crop in Maharashtra there was no stocking of the onions by stockists.
Same were the views of Ajay Gupta partner Krishan Lal Bodh Raj Ware House supplying onion to other districts of the Jammu region. He said since the price hike the demand has decreased to a great extent and in normal course when we were supplying 40 bags of onion to a dealer in Rajouri and Poonch districts it has come down to one or two bags now.
Maintaining that the retailers are not responsible for price hike Gupta a retailer in outskirts of Jammu said that they get per kg in wholesale at Rs 60 and the retailer who keeps his margin besides the wastage is bound to sell the  onions for Rs 70 a kg. However, he criticized those retailers who are selling the onion in market for Rs 80 or Rs 85.

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