The government today decided to keep the minimum export price (MEP) for onion unchanged at $200 a tonne in June to boost exports of the commodity.
"Export price of onion has been kept unchanged at $200 per tonne," said Anand Bose, the Managing Director of National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (Nafed), the designated agency for regulating onion exports.
Nafed, along with 13 other agencies involved in onion exports, decides the MEP every month. No export can take place below the MEP and all contracts are registered with Nafed.
The onion MEP has not been revised for June as the domestic wholesale prices at present are ruling steady at Rs 400-600 per quintal and most onion stocks are being stored in cold storage units, an expert said.
The government has been keeping the MEP for onions lower since April, after prices cooled down in the domestic market to a level affecting farmers' margin. The onion MEP stood at $400 a tonne in March.
In the 2009-10 fiscal, the country's onion exports rose marginally to 18.14 lakh tonnes, against 17.83 lakh tonnes in the previous year, data showed.
India exports onions to Bangladesh, the Middle East, Singapore and Malaysia.
India's onion production is expected to be a record 95 lakh tonnes in 2009-10, against 85 lakh tonnes last year.
