Nashik: The average wholesale onion price at the country’s largest wholesale market at Lasalgaon drop in demand in comparison to supply.
The average wholesale onion prices have dropped by Rs 1,050 per quintal in just a week, from Rs 2,900 per quintal on October 9 to Rs 1,880 per quintal today.
APMC officials said the supply of new onion crop has increased in other onion growing belts in the country and it has reduced the demand for Nashik’s onions. Moreover, export of onions has also reduced, which has led to overall drop in average wholesale onion prices, said APMC officials.
Moreover, the central government has created a buffer stock of 2 lakh tonnes and it is in the process of selling over 1 lakh tonnes in the markets in major metro cities. This has also impacted the wholesale market leading drop in average wholesale onion prices, said APMC officials.
Meanwhile, the minimum and maximum wholesale onion prices were recorded at Rs 901 and Rs 2,512 per quintal, respectively. Around 8,000 quintal of onions were auctioned at Lasalgaon on Tuesday.
Presently, the onions arriving at the Lasalgaon APMC are the summer onions harvested in March and April. The summer onions have a shelf life of over six months and farmers prefer storing summer onions with a hope of getting better prices.
The fresh kharif onions have also started arriving at the market but in very low quantity — only 4% of the total arrivals at the market.
Source:thetimesofindia.com