Nafed to offload 200 tonnes of onion daily in Delhi to check prices

New Delhi: Cooperative Nafed will offload 200 tonnes of onion daily from Monday onwards in the national capital from the government's buffer stock in a bid to arrest price rise, its managing director Sanjeev K Chadha said.

Retail prices of onion, the main kitchen stable, have shot up to Rs 30-40 per kg because of tight supplies from the producing states, as per the trade data. "We were off-loading 75-100 tonnes of onions from the buffer stock in the last ten days. Now, we have decided to release more quantity, at least 200 tonnes, on a daily basis in the wholesale markets," Chadha told PTI.

Nafed (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India) will offload onions not only in the wholesale markets but also to the Mother Dairy's subsidiary Safal for retail distribution in all its 400 outlets, he added. Mother Dairy has agreed to sell onions at Rs 23.90 per kg for the loose variant and Rs 25.90 per kg for the packed one. The increase in supplies will arrest the price rise in both wholesale and retails markets of Delhi- Chadha said.

The Nafed official further said that there was enough quantity of onion in the buffer stock, created by the centre using the price stabalisiation fund. "We are going to release buffer stock of onion in the open market till first week of December, by then arrival of new kharif crop will be in full swing," he said. Already, the arrival of new kharif crop has commenced in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.