Two onion exporter groups have filed separate petitions in the high court here against an export ban order passed last week by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). The hearing for these two cases have been scheduled on September 20 and 21.
Both groups are seeking interim relief for the consignment for which the government had already issued no-objection certificates at various stages of loading.
“We have made the commissioner of Customs and the DGFT parties in the case ,” said a Mumbai-based exporter who filed the writ petition on condition of anonymity. “The court heard the first arguments on Wednesday. The final hearing will be done on September 21, followed by the order the same day.”
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Prompted by rising retail prices in urban markets, DGFT had on September 9 ordered a complete ban on all onion exports. This was a day after a staggering $175 increase in the minimum export price to $375 a tonne was ordered. Traders believe the government took a decision in a hurry, without taking stock of the actual situation.
Exporters, hoping the ban would not be levied so soon, contracted nearly 45,000 tonnes of onion with various traders abroad, largely in Dubai. These were in various stages of shipment, with almost all traders having obtained an NOC from Customs and other regulatory authorities.
“We had already transported our 2,600 tonnes of contracted onion to the port for loading in containers,” said the exporter. “But, the ban order not only hit the shipment but also added to the overall cost of trade due to re-transportation back to warehouses.”
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India has suffered a major image crisis on the global front. “In the future,” said another trader associated with the exporter filing the case, “no importer will trust us”.
In Nashik, 200 km from here, the major mandi remained closed yet another day. But, the price remained rangebound in the Vashi Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) yard, with high-quality onion was quoting at Rs 11-12 a kg, a normal price of onion. In the retail market, however, prices have almost doubled to Rs 22-24 a kg in the last few days because of lower supply from wholesale mandis. Supply of all commodities were disrupted in the last 10-15 days from warehouses to physical mandis due to several holidays.
The new season crop is expected to start by October-end and consumers will have to live up with the seasonal high price for at least one more month.
Nashik constitutes nearly 30 per cent of India’s onion supply. In 2010-11, the country produced around 1.48 million tonnes, a rise of 24 per cent from the previous year.
Total onion exports from the country till this July was recorded at 4,52,409 tonnes — almost 34 per cent less than the same period last year.
Last year’s experience has made the consumers jittery about slightest spike in prices. That time, the retail price of onions zoomed to almost Rs 90 per kg in some centres owing to damage to standing crop in Maharashtra. The spurt in onion prices then led to the constitution of an inter-ministerial group on inflation.