Onion prices still worry govt
High retail prices of onion ranging between `45-`70 per kg continued to worry the government on Friday even as reports of Pakistan lifting the ban on export of the commodity to India raised hope of domestic prices coming down.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee asked the states to ease supply bottlenecks of the commodity. Cabinet secretary K.M. Chandrashekhar had reviewed the situation with secretaries of consumer affairs, agriculture, food, commerce and expenditure on Thursday. “The government is concerned over the issue,” said a senior official.
Though wholesale rates of onion in Lasalgaon and Pimpalgaon mandis in the Nashik district of Maharashtra fell marginally by `7.50 per kg, it failed to have much impact in the retail price of the commodity. At Lasalgaon, the wholesale rates fell to `3,551 per quintal from Thursday’s `4,299 a quintal due to higher supply. Wholesale prices at Pimpalgaon, another key trading centre for onion, declined to `4,200 per quintal from Thursday’s `4,511/quintal even though the daily arrivals dropped to 5,000 quintal from 7,006 quintal. At Delhi’s Azadpur mandi, the Asia’s biggest wholesale market, wholesale prices softened by `2 per kg because of increased arrivals from Gujarat.
On December 20, 2010, wholesale rates of onions had shot up to nearly `6,300 per quintal at both Lasalgoan and Pimpalgaon. Following that retail onion prices too had surged to `70-85 per kg in the major cities across India due to damage of crops in Maharashtra because of unseasonal rains in November 2010.
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