Onion worth Rs 15 crore rotting in warehouses

More than 15,000 metric tonnes of onions procured by the state government are in danger of getting rotten, which means that the Rs 15 crore that was spent on their procurement is likely to go down the drain. Due to a bumper season, the government has been finding it difficult to sell onions leaving them to rot in warehouses across the state, mostly in Nashik.

The country has seen a record onion production of 2.03 lakh metric tonnes in April this year, as against the average crop of 1.30-1.40 lakh mt. With a sharp fall in onion prices due to increase in supply and unsold stock, the state government decided to procure onions from farmers. Accordingly, the National Agricultural Co-operative Marketing

Federation of India (Nafed) and Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) bought 5,000 and 12,000 mt of onions at the cost of more than Rs 15 crore.

The excess production has resulted in sharp fall in onion prices across the country.

According to officials, not more than 1,000 mt of the crop has been sold so far. With a new harvest set to hit the market in October, the remaining stock is likely to rot in warehouses.

Nanasaheb Patil, director, Nafed, said, “It has been five months since this onion harvest was collected in April. Onions normally have a shelf life of six months. Hence loss is bound to happen. The exact loss will be known only after the warehouses are emptied.”

The state has proposed a subsidy of Rs 100 per quintal for farmers. However, farmers have said the state government is ‘making a mockery of subsidy’ by offering such a meagre amount. With this aid, even the cost of production would not be recovered, they said. In Ahmednagar district, farmers protested by dumping onions opposite the collector’s office on Thursday.