With onion prices skyrocketing, the Centre has started selling the staple vegetable directly to consumers at ₹35 per kg, keeping in mind the current market prices even as its acquisition cost is about ₹28. Since the buffer stocks are higher this time, the Government is ready to offload as much as possible until Diwali as the next crop will start arriving by then, officials said.
Flagging off mobile vans carrying onion at an event in Delhi, Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said: “Keeping food inflation under control is a priority of the government and various direct interventions through price stabilisation measures have played an important role in bringing down inflation in recent months.”
Later, the Consumer Affairs Ministry issued a statement saying the calibrated and targeted release of onion from the government buffer has begun on Thursday “to make the essential vegetable available to consumers at affordable prices.”
On e-commerce platform
Currently, the average retail prices of onion are hovering between ₹40 (in Gujarat) and ₹65 (in Manipur), while the all India average is ₹49/kg, Consumer Affairs Ministry data showed. In Punjab, India’s largest onion consuming State, prices have reached to ₹53/kg from ₹36 over the past two months, an official source said, adding the current intervention is likely to arrest the rising trend even if prices do not fall immediately. In the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi, the bulb is selling at ₹60-70/kg.
The mobile vans have been pressed into service by National Cooperative Consumer’s Federation of India (NCCF) and National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed), the government said. The mobile vans will be available at 24 places/localities in Delhi, 2 in Mumbai, 11 in Gautam Buddha Nagar (Noida, UP) and 3 in Ghaziabad (UP).
Apart from mobile vans, onion will also be sold at e-commerce platforms as well as retail outlets of NCCF, Nafed, Kendriya Bhandar and Safal (of Mother Dairy) in major consumption centres.
Onion sales in Kolkata, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Raipur and Bhubaneshwar will commence by these agencies next week and in the third week of this month all major places will be covered where prices will be high. These agencies are also tying up with other cooperatives and big retail chains across India to sell the onion at ₹35/kg.
Outlook positive
The quantity and disposal channels for onion will be enhanced, deepened, intensified and diversified as per the trend in onion prices, officials said. This year, the Centre has procured 4.7 lakh tonnes (lt) of onion (from the rabi crop) under the price stabilisation fund (PSF) scheme, compared with 3 lt last year.
Price realisation by onion farmers during this rabi season was better compared to last year as mandi prices remained in the range of ₹1,230-2,578 a quintal against ₹693-1,205 last year, the ministry said. “The average buffer procurement price this year was ₹2,833 a quintal against ₹1,724 last year,” it said adding the procurement prices of onion have always been higher than the prevailing modal prices as store-worthy onion are procured for the buffer.
Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi Khare said the outlook for onion availability and prices in coming months remain positive as Kharif sowing area has increased — 2.9 lakh hectares (lh) as on August 26 against 1.94 lh during the corresponding period last year. The government has estimated that as high as 38 lt of onion are still in storage with farmers and traders.
“The Department of Consumer Affairs is keeping a close watch on the onion crop availability and prices to take necessary measures in the interest of both the consumers and the farmers. In this regard, the government will take necessary measures to ensure remunerative prices to farmers while making onion available to consumers at affordable prices,” it said.