Diminishing stocks might lead to onion shortage in November

While onion is now available at economical prices, a shortage in supply is likely from October-end to November as existing stocks of it harvested in February-March this year are nearly over. The new “lal” variety has started arriving but the quantity is negligible and a shortage is thus likely from October-end to November, market experts told The Asian Age.

Chandwad Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) chairman Dr Atmaram Kumbharde said that over 70 to 80 per cent stored “Unhal” variety went bad and had to be discarded. He said that the “lal” variety, also called “pol”, would flood the markets in December and January and prices would fall significantly. However, till the new crop arrived, a slight shortage was likely in October and November. “However, this ‘lal’ variety can be stored for a maximum of only 90 days as compared to ‘Unhal’ onion, which can be stored for over nine months,” he warned.

The ‘lal’ variety has now started to trickle into the market, but it is still not sufficiently available. While the prices for this variety were between Rs 250 and Rs 400 per quintal last month, the prices are between '400 and '700 this month.

Readers may recall that when the government removed the adat system in June, in which commission had to be paid to the agent by the farmer, and directed that commission be paid by traders, angry traders boycotted the market for nearly three months, during which time the stored onion remained unsold and started decaying.

Shetkari Sanghatana leader and farmer Sandubhai Shaikh of Rui village said that the prices of all agricultural commodities were falling. Onions had made farmers bankrupt and now tomatoes were being sold for Rs 10 per kg, he said.

Farmer Ashokrao Patil of Niphad said, “We didn’t even realise when Dusshera got over and are now faced with a dark Diwali. The rural economy has collapsed as 80 percent of Unhal onion has rotted in storage. The price of onions has increased by Rs 100 but what about the losses Crores of rupees worth onion has decayed,” Mr Patil said.