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NASHIK: Onion importers, who have already given orders and are in the process of getting consignments from Egypt, are ruing their decision following to drop in onion prices.
As the maximum wholesale onion prices touched Rs 2,600 per quintal in first half of August, some of the private traders had given a bulk orders for import of onions from Egypt. Private traders have already imported around 4,000 metric tonnes of onions so far from Egypt and import of another 6,000 metric tonnes of onions are on way to Mumbai, which is expected within a week or two.The landing price of onions from Egypt in Mumbai is at Rs 20-22.
But the average wholesale onion prices currently have dropped to Rs 1,500 per quintal. And traders are ruing their decisions due to decline in wholesale onion prices in domestic market."These traders from Mumbai and elsewhere in the country are lamenting their decision to import inions since the domestic wholesale price of the commodity has dipped significantly. Their decision to import onions has gone wary and would have incur losses to sell them in the domestic market," said the sources close to the development.
According to sources there is no chance that these traders will make any profit by selling imported onions," said a onion importer, who is importing over onion laden 100 containers each with 20 tonnes.
The average wholesale onion prices in the domestic markets increased five times from Rs 450 per quintal on May 31 to Rs 2,450 per quintal on August 10, registering 20-month high price due to short of supply. Previous high of average wholesale onion price had been recorded at Rs 2,450 per quintal on November 19, 2015.
In retail markets of Nashik, onion prices have increased from Rs 10 to Rs 30 per kg after rise in wholesale onion prices in past two-three months. The retail onion prices have reached up to Rs 40 per kg in many other parts of the country.
The average wholesale onion prices are fluctuated in the range from Rs 1,550 per quintal to Rs 2,200 per quintal in past 20 days."
The average wholesale onion price at Lasalgaon APMC was recorded at Rs 1,500 per quintal on Friday. The minimum and maximum wholesale onion prices were recorded at Rs 700 and Rs 1,750 per quintal, respectively on Friday at Lasalgaon. Around 17,000 quintals of onions were auctioned at Lasalgaon on Friday.
There will be no fresh harvest of the crop up to mid-October. And the kharif plantation of onions too has been delayed due to late arrival of monsoon. Presently, the onions arriving in the market are of summer crop harvested during March and April. Since the shelf life of summer onions is much more than the kharif onions, the farmers prefer storing summer onions with a hope of getting better prices.
According to APMC sources, although the prices have dropped to Rs 1,500 per quintal, but it may increase further towards Rs 2,000 per quintal in next few days due to short of supply in the country although there has been enough stock in Maharashtra.
