The Centre has been taking a number of steps to bring down onion prices. It has released buffer onion stock into the market and has also imposed a minimum export price on onions. These measures have helped to stabilize prices to some extent, but they have not been enough to bring them down to affordable levels.
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Onion prices update: In a bid to provide relief to consumers from rising onion prices, the Centre on Saturday announced that Mother Dairy’s Safal outlets will also sell buffer onion at a subsidized rate of Rs 25 per kg from the weekend in Delhi-NCR. The Hyderabad Agricultural Cooperatives Association is already doing so in Telangana and other southern states.
Cooperative Bodies Working To Distribute Subsidised Onions
Already, cooperative bodies NCCF and Nafed are retailing buffer onion at subsidised rate on behalf of the central government. While Nafed has so far set up 329 retail points consisting of mobile vans and station outlets in 55 cities across 21 states, NCCF has set up 457 retail points in 54 cities in 20 states, it said.
Kendriya Bhandar too has started retail supply of onion through its outlets across Delhi-NCR from November 3.
Safal Mother Dairy To Start Sale From This Weekend
“Safal Mother Dairy will start from this weekend. The retail sale of onions to consumers in Telangana and other southern states is being taken up by Hyderabad Agricultural Cooperatives Association (HACA),” the consumer affairs ministry said in a statement.
The ministry has initiated an aggressive retail sale of onion from the buffer in a bid to provide relief to consumers from the recent increase in onion prices due to delay in the arrival of kharif crop.
The government has maintained a buffer stock of 5 lakh tonne of onion for the current year and plans to create a buffer of an additional 2 lakh tonne. Due to recent measures taken by the government, wholesale prices are showing a declining trend but it takes time to reflect in retail markets.
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The wholesale price of onion was Rs 4,800 per quintal on October 28 in Lasalgaon market in Maharashtra, as against Rs 3,650 per quintal on November 3, the statement said. There was a decline of 24 per cent in a week.
Retail prices Expected To Slow Down
“Retail prices are expected to show a similar decline in the coming week,” the ministry noted.
It may be recalled that when prices of tomatoes shot up in the last week of June 2023 due to supply disruptions caused by monsoon rains and white fly infestations, the government intervened by procuring tomatoes through NCCF and Nafed from the producing states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra and supplying them at a highly subsidized rate to consumers in major consumption centers.
Availability And Affordability Of Dal Ensured
To ensure the availability and affordability of dal for ordinary households, the government has launched Bharat Dal at a subsidized price of Rs 60 per kg.
Bharat Dal is made available for retail sale to consumers and for supplies to the Army and welfare schemes through NAFED, NCCF, Kendriya Bhandar, Safal, and state-controlled cooperatives in Telangana and Maharashtra.
