The onion prices in wholesale market of Lasalgaon have slipped to Rs 48 per kg, from last week’s price of Rs 57 per kg due to improvement in supply. The prices in both retail and wholesale markets had shot up unabated due to estimated fall in production in the 2014-15 crop year by five lakh tonnes. Retail prices have gone up to Rs 80 per kg across the country on likely fall in this year’s production due to deficit rains in key growing areas which was fueling the price rise. Lasalgaon in Maharashtra, Asia’s biggest onion market, sets the price trend of onion across the country.
The country’s total onion production in 2014-15 crop year (July-June) had declined to 18.92 million tonnes from 19.4 million tonnes in the previous year. The early kharif onion crop is currently being harvested in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Harvesting in Maharashtra, the country’s biggest onion growing state, would start from October-November.
In the price-sensitive Delhi market, onions are being sold at subsidized rate at Rs 38 per kg at Safal’s 390 outlets, at Rs 35 per kg at DMS booths, while the Delhi government is selling them at Rs 30 per kg at fair price shops.