NASHIK: The Centre's decision to do away with the Minimum Export Price (MEP) has helped India achieve an all-time high of onion export at 24 lakh tonne in the first nine months during the current financial year.
The previous all-time high export of onion was 18.73 lakh tonne in 2009-10. With the figure of the last three months yet to come in, the country's onion export is expected to reach 30 lakh tonne.
Moreover, the onion export increased three times more during the April-Dec period of 2016-17 as compared to the corresponding period in 2015-16.
According to sources from National Agriculture Co-operative Marketing Federation (Nafed), the country exported 24 lakh tonnes of onion during the April-December period of the current financial year as against 6.94 lakh tonne during the same period in 2015-16.
NAFED director Nanasaheb Patil attributed the record onion exports to the Centre's export policy. "The Union government removed the MEP on onions in December 2015 and it has impacted the overseas sale of onion," he added.
According to him, the Centre has also introduced Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) of 5% for export of onions since August 2016. This has overall led to the rise in onion export.
"Considering an export of 2.5 lakh tonne a month on an average, the onion export of the country may touch 30 lakh metric tonne by the end of the current financial year," said Patil.
Onions from India are exported to countries such as Malaysia, Kuwait, Maldives, Mauritius, Nepal, Norway, Bangladesh, the UK, Russia, Singapore, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Indonesia, UAE and Italy.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com