Pakistani onions set to arrive in Delhi markets; may soften prices

Onions from Pakistan are set to arrive in Delhi soon and may bring some relief from high rates even as the city government is battling to cool the prices.

A handful of Delhi-based traders have imported the commodity from the neighbouring country as severe supply crunch has sent onion prices sky high.

"Today, 10 traders from Punjab and 10 traders from Azadpur market in Delhi imported onion from Pakistan," a custom official at Amritsar said today.

Onion prices in the country have doubled to Rs 70-80 a kg in retail markets owing to low supply of crop from Maharashtra, Gujarat and southern states.

Wholesale prices of onion at the country's largest trading centre in Nashik were ruling at Rs 3,702 - 3,134 per quintal today, while traders are importing the commodity at Rs 1,900-2,200 a quintal.

Amid mounting demand from India, over 500 tonne of onion from Pakistan reached the Indian territory today with 60 truck loads (9 MT) entering the Amritsar via Attari-Wagah land route. Within three days, over 1,000 tonne of onion has already arrived at Amritsar from Pakistan, traders said.

"Due to increase in onion import from Pakistan, the wholesale rates of onion in Amritsar has dipped to Rs35-38 per kg against Rs45-50 a kg yesterday," Amritsar-based vegetable trader Rajdeep Uppal said today.

However, he said impact on retail rates is expected to be seen in next two days.

Traders from India imported 13 truck loads on December 20 and 38 truck loads of onions yesterday via Amritsar via Attari-Wagah land route.

With rising import by India flaring up onion prices in Pakistan as well, the landed rate of imported onion at Amritsar now shot up from Rs18 a kg to Rs22 per kg, importers said.

To counter the sudden rise in prices of onion, the government has brought down customs duty and countervailing duty to zero. The government also notified the ban on export of all varieties of onion till further orders.

While, the wholesale prices at the country's largest trading centre in Nashik dropped by up to 42%, the prices at the Azadpur Mandi in Delhi (Asia's largest fruit and vegetable market) came down by up to 29%.