The impasse over onion trading at the Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMC) continued despite withdrawal of the boycott by onion merchants in Nashik. However, traders and farmers hoped the markets would open on Tuesday, though some of the traders’ demands were unacceptable to farmers. All APMC markets, except Pimpalgaon Baswant APMC, remained closed on Monday.
The merchants, headed by Onion Merchants’ Association president Sohanlal Bhandari, held a prolonged meeting at Manmad on Sunday. The meeting concluded at 10 pm after which press releases were circulated, stating that markets would resume Monday.
The traders also said that henceforth they would accept only those onions that are brought in sacks and not loosely piled on tractor-trailers, pickups or bullock carts.
However, farmers are not too happy with the new arrangement, as none of them have sacks and will now have to invest in buying them. Farmers also expressed their reservations about packing onions in sacks. “The cost of a 50-kg capacity onion sack is Rs 40. Two sacks are required for one quintal. Secondly, the traders deduct cost of 1 kg per sack as sack weight, which actually does not weigh more than 300g. So, our losses would be over Rs 80 per quintal, which amounts to the price of 2-kg onions. Also, as farmers begin buying sacks, the demand will jack up their prices, which is unfeasible,” he said.
National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd director Nanasaheb Patil said, “Earlier, the APMC was supervising the entire trading operation. Now when a farmer brings his onion in sacks, who will unload and load the sacks, and who will weigh and which party will pay ”
