Govt may Further Bring Down Export Price of Onion: Pawar.

New Delhi: After reducing onion MEP by USD 125 to USD 350 a tonne, the government is planning to further cut the minimum export price of the commodity in its bid to stem the slide in domestic rates.
    
"We are thinking to further bringing down the Minimum Export Price (MEP) for onion because the domestic prices of the bulb is going down," Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar told reporters.
    
On onion export prices, Pawar said officers have been directed to collect information on prices of onion in the domestic markets in the next 3-4 days.
     
Based on the information a decision would be taken to further lower the export price of onion.
    
The government on last Saturday last brought down the MEP of onion by USD 125 per tonne to USD 350 a tonne -- a move aimed at encouraging outbound shipments.
     
In February, the government had lifted the ban on onion exports after farmers? protests due to crashing of domestic prices.
     
It, however, capped the MEP at a higher level of USD 600 per tonne as a precautionary measure to control retail prices, which had shot up to Rs 70-80 per kg in December last year.
     
The Government had imposed a ban on export after onion prices rocketed and touched as high as Rs 80-85 per kg.
     
Onion exports have declined by 34 on Tuesday to 4.52 lakh tonnes till July in the current fiscal from 6.83 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period, as per the official data.
     
India exports onion mainly to West Asia, Singapore and Bangladesh.

Source : zeenews.india.com