Despite the government’s efforts to curb onion exports, shipment of the commodity from the country during 2009-10 (April-March) rose nearly 2 per cent to 1.81 million tonnes, according to the state-owned National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF).
Facing a price surge, the government had, in the later half of the year, sharply raised minimum export price in its bid to discourage exports and increase domestic supply.
“Demand for Indian onion in West Asia and Bangladesh remained high despite high prices, as supply from other producers such as Pakistan, Iran and China was low,” said R K Gupta, director, NHRDF.
In value terms, the exports grew at a higher pace of 9 per cent to Rs 24.46 crore.
The average realisation was Rs 13,478 a tonne, compared with Rs 12,579 in 2008-09, the state-owned agency said. A senior official with the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (nafed), parent body of NHRDF, had earlier said the exports were expected to fall due to higher MEP.
“Exports were higher on year until October when minimum export price was at a reasonable level. However, a sharp rise in MEP significantly curbed the exports in the subsequent months,” the official had said. During April-October, India exported 1.28 million tonnes onion, compared with 1.04 million tonnes a year ago.
However, Nafed, a key canalising agency for onion exports, had sharply increased MEP from $200 a tonne in the first half to as high as $505 until March 10 before cutting it back to $250 for the current month. During October-December, retail onion prices had increased from below Rs 10-a-kg level to Rs 35, mainly due to damage to late kharif crop after heavy rains in September and October.