Government removes 20% export duty on onion effective from April 1

24 Mar 2025 Evaluate

The Government of India has lifted 20% export duty on onion, effective from April 1, 2025. To ensure domestic availability, the government had taken measures to check export by means of duty, minimum export price (MEP) and even to the extent of export prohibition for almost five months, from December 08, 2023 till May 03, 2024. The export duty of 20% which now stands removed has been in place from September 13, 2024.

Despite export restriction, the total onion export during FY 2023-24 was 17.17 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) and FY 2024-25 (till March 18th) was 11.65 LMT. Monthly onion export quantity had picked up from 0.72 LMT in September, 2024 to 1.85 LMT in January, 2025.

The decision stands as another testament to the government’s commitment to ensuring remunerative prices to farmers while maintaining affordability of onion to the consumers at this crucial juncture when both mandi and retail prices have soften following expected arrival of rabi crops in good quantities. Even though, the current mandi prices are above the level during corresponding period of previous years, a decline of 39% is observed in the all-India weighted average modal prices. Similarly, all-India average retail prices recorded declined of 10% over the past one month.

As per the estimates of Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, rabi production this year at 227 LMT is over 18% higher than 192 LMT last year. The rabi onion which accounted for 70-75% of India’s total onion production is crucial for overall availability and stability in prices till the arrival of kharif crop from October/November onward. The estimated higher production this season is expected to further ease the market prices in coming months.

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