In a bid to bring down onion prices, traders have imported 15 containers of onion from Egypt.
Of the total imports, eight containers were received at Lasalgaon and seven were offloaded in Mumbai.
The landed cost of onion at Lasalgaon works out to ₹25 a kg which is higher than ₹15-20 a kg quoted in India.
Nanasaheb Patil, Chairman, Agriculture Produce Market Committee, Lasalgaon and Director, Nafed, said as there is no scarcity of onion in India, this decision of giving permission for traders to import is impractical and has been done without considering various factors such as price and quality.
“The quality of imported onions is inferior and needs to be dried by fans to sustain for some time. Moreover, consumers may not like it as it tastes very different from the Indian onions which are known for their pungency,” he said.
The Government claims that this import will help stabilise retail onion prices.