Onion crisis continues: Quantity rises,quality falls

The present onion crisis refuses to die down.

The present onion crisis refuses to die down,even as Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMC) in the onion belt did see a rise in the quantity of onions hitting the market. However,the quality of the onions continues to be a major concern,with traders complaining about the inferior quality of the stock coming in.

On Friday,at the Lasalgaon APMC,the biggest onion trading market in Asia,the highest price paid for a quintal was Rs 5,500,which was a drop from the Rs 6,000 that the crop had fetched a few days back. Around 3-4,000 tonnes of the crop had hit the markets,as compared to 15-17,000 quintal that normally hits the markets during this time of the year. Deepak Pagar,north Maharashtra president of Swabhimani Shetkari Sangathana (SSS),pointed out that the quality of onions hitting the market was inferior.

Similarly,on Friday,the Pune APMC Market saw Rs 6,000 as the highest price paid per quintal of onion. 11,272 quintals of onion had hit the market as compared to 9,237 quintal of the crop that had hit the market last year on the same day. However the highest price paid last year was Rs 1,500 per quintal. Crop from the fields in Manchar,Khed,Solapur,Karnataka and other parts hit the Pune market,but as in Lasalgaon,quality remained a major concern. The onion coming to the market is wet and half of the produce is rotten. Storing such produce is becoming a problem, said a senior officer of the APMC market in Pune.

Although senior leaders have expressed confidence that the price of markets will go down in the days to come,Pagar said that the absence of ready crop would plague the markets for days to come. The crop,which is normally ready by October,got washed away due to prolonged rains. There is hardly any onion left in the field, he said.

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