Erratic monsoon may lead country towards onion scarcity

03 Aug 2012 Evaluate

The major onion producing regions in Maharashtra and Gujarat may witness a 50% fall in sowing area of onion on account of erratic monsoon. This drop in sowing area of crop would affect supply of onion during October-December period triggering price rise in the domestic market. Presently, the country has sufficient stocks of onion at around 18 lakh tonnes, which will cater to domestic requirements till October. The consumption in the domestic market is about 3-4 lakh tonne of the bulb every month besides some amount for export.

The sowing of kharif onion which started from July 15 will end by August 15 and any improvement in monsoon could see sowing of late kharif onion which would be harvested only in December. However, some farmers in Nashik regions have sown soyabean and coarse grain in place of onion in their field due to poor rain and as the crop fetches lower price.

National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED), which is the principle agency to provide no objection certificate (NOC) for onion export, is expecting that by the end of August month the estimates of onion crop would come. Consequent to government deciding to do away with minimum export price (MEP) of the bulb in early May, the outbound shipment of the root witnessed a marginal increase. The onion export rose by 32,000 tonnes in the first three months of 2012-13 compared to same period last year.

During April-June period this year, India exported 461,854 tonnes of onions, as per the month-wise data on onion exports collected by NAFED. In the same period last year, a total of 429,802 tonnes were exported. The major destinations for Indian onion are Gulf countries, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Far East.

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