The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed) and National Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF) have sold over 900 tonnes of onion during August 30-31 through online platform e-NAM, officials say.
The 900 tonnes sale includes 152 tonnes traded through inter-state transactions. The sale of onions through e-NAM platform was the government’s swift response to the traders’ protest in certain Maharashtra mandis, where they had halted auctions to oppose to the 40 per cent export duty imposed on onions. In response, the government directed both Nafed and NCCF to explore alternative avenues for releasing the surplus onion stock.
Sale objective
“The objective is to make the alternate route open for disposal as any disruption in supplies at any point of time could have a negative impact on our price control efforts,” said a government official involved in disposal of onion from buffer stock.
Nafed, which had initiated the disposal through e-NAM, has been able to sell 5,08.11 tonnes within a State after taking the physical stock from Lasalgaon, Maharashtra, while National Consumer Cooperative Federation (NCCF) has used both intra mandi within the State and inter-State transactions.
Both the agencies are hopeful of increasing sales through e-NAM if more traders are brought on the platform during auction, convincing them of the quality and logistics issues, sources said. The government has already facilitated on the e-NAM portal the logistics value chain in agri trade so that the buyers have the option to make arrangement for physical transport of the commodities, an official said.
After the government decided to offload onion in the market from the 3-lakh tonne buffer stock already created, before it was expanded to include another 2 lakh tonnes, NCCF has sold about 21,000 tonnes and Nafed about 15,000 tonnes. The Centre on August 11 announced that it would release onion in the open market from the buffer stock by targeting key markets in States or regions where retail prices are ruling above the all-India average rate.
Nafed has so far sent over 3,000 tonnes of onion to various mandis in Haryana, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh and has sought the Consumer Ministry’s approval to start selling in mandis in Uttar Pradesh, official sources said. In Uttar Pradesh, major towns such as Lucknow, Varanasi, Prayagraj, and Kanpur are likely to be covered initially and later on other places may also be included depending on the response, sources said.
Quality assurance
NCCF sources said of the 152.5 tonnes sold through e-NAM as inter-State trade, 61 tonnes have been sold in Punjab and remaining quantity in Dhanbad as buyers have been assured of the quality as they have booked the trade online, while the onions are located at Lasalgaon.
The average realisation by NCCF through e-NAM in inter-state transactions was higher at about ₹2,200 a quintal, whereas through intra-State auction it was about ₹1,975. On the other hand, Nafed’s average realisation (all intra-state auctions) was about ₹2,155, sources said.intra-state
“It all depends on prevailing market rate at a particular mandi on the date of auction where the buyer is located. Since, these agencies are conduction auctions at those select places where arrivals are lower or prices are higher, the selling rates also vary accordingly,” the official said.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.