The Centre on Monday said it is closely monitoring the price and availability of onions, as there is no reason for the price of the essential vegetable going up considering the bumper production this year.
According to the third advance estimate of horticulture production, as much as 217.2 lakh tonnes of onion were produced in 2016-17, compared to the 215.6 lakh tonnes projected in the previous advance estimate in May this year, said a release from the Department of Consumers Affairs.
The estimated production is 3.8 per cent more than the previous year’s output of 209.3-lakh tonnes.
“However, prices of onion have recorded increase over the last month. To discourage speculative and unscrupulous trade activities, the department has enabled the States to impose stock limit on onion,” the release said.
“Recent production indicates that as per the fundamentals, there is no rationale for prices of onion to rise any further.”
The department recently held meetings with traders and importers to review the current onion price and availability. While 2,400 tonnes of onion has already been imported, another shipment of 9,000 tonnes is expected very shortly.
The department also plans to regularly monitor the price situation with stakeholders and facilitate imports by private traders to help moderate speculation in the market if the prices go up unreasonably.