The country's onion export dipped by over 21 per cent in December 2009 after the government hiked the benchmark export price in order to keep a check on domestic rates of the edible bulb.
India shipped 78,924 tonnes of onion in December 2009 against 1,00,379 tonnes in the same month in 2008, according to Nashik-based National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF).
Higher export price has weighed on onion exports. The shipments were low last month, a Nafed official said.
The government has been raising the minimum export price (MEP) of onion for the past couple of months in order to discourage export as local prices are ruling high, while food inflation is close to 20 per cent.
For December 2009, the onion MEP stood at $450-455 a tonne compared with $330-335 a tonne for the same period previous year. To augment domestic supply, the government raised MEP for the current month as well by $50 to an average of $500-505 a tonne.
Agri-cooperative Nafed has been regulating onion export on behalf of the government and it alongwith 13 other agencies, decides the MEP every month. No export can take place below the MEP and contracts are registered with Nafed. At present, retail price of onion is ruling over Rs 20 a kg in many place in the country. During April-December 2009, the total onion shipments declined to 1.42 million tonnes from 1.25 million tonnes in the year-ago period, the data showed.
