1,43,000 tonne onion exported to check price decline

India has exported 1,43,000 tonne of onions during January-May to check the fall in domestic price of the commodity, which has witnessed a bumper production, Alok Ranjan, managing director, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation, said on Monday. India is exporting onions at $150-200 a tonne on cost and freight basis, he said.

"So far, we have exported 1,43,000 tonne. Around 50,000 tonne were exported in April and 60,000 tonne in March, to prop up prices which had touched as low as Rs 2 a kg in the wholesale market," Ranjan said.

India is currently exporting onions to Dubai, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Mauritius.

To arrest the drastic fall in prices, Nafed procured onions at Rs 300 a quintal, which was much higher than the prevailing price of Rs 270 a quintal, he said.

"Traditionally, onion prices fall during April and May and start rising during September and October," he said. "Our idea to procure and sell overseas during March-April was to stop the fall in prices."

He said Nafed has procured 2.4 million tonne of onion so far compared with 8,00,000 tonne last year.

India produces about five to six million tonne of onion annually.

Onion production during this rabi season was four million tonne, a rise of about 15 per cent over last year's level, he said.

In India, rabi or winter crops are sown during October-December, while harvest begins in March and ends April.

Kharif or summer crops are sown from May.

Onion being a sensitive commodity, both a sharp rise and a subsequent drastic fall in prices in the recent times, have led to political upheaval.