PANJIM: After tomato prices squeezing money out of the people’s pockets, now it is the turn for onion prices to bring tears into the eyes of consumers as prices have soared to Rs 80 per kg in Panjim market.
Ahmed, a retailer at the Panjim municipal market, said that sudden increases in the prices of onion have been noticed during the last 15 days.
“'The price of onion 15 days back was Rs 30 per kg but now it has touched Rs 80 per kg. We get onions from Belagavi. It is not new. Every year the prices go up as new onions are not coming. New onions are likely to come in a day or two,” he said.
However, prices will not fall suddenly. It will take at least a month to stabilize the rate. We get onion from Belagavi at the rate of Rs 60 or 65 per kg. Then we have to pay transportation charges as well,'' he said
Several factors contribute to the exorbitant onion prices. The vegetable sellers pointed to adverse weather conditions earlier this year, including a heatwave and irregular rainfall, which severely affected onion crops, resulting in higher prices.
Sainath Prabhu, an onion wholesaler in Panjim, said, “There is shortage of onion. The problem is that though new onions have reached the wholesale market, retailers do not want to take them as they get perished quickly due high moisture. This has put pressure on those onions which grew last year. New onions will be available till March.”
However, he said that this is not a new phenomenon. It happens every year.
“We do not know when the prices will stabilise, as there is huge pressure on suppliers,” Prabhu said.
According to him, onions are auctioned at markets like Pune, Benguluru, Mysore, Belagavi, Kolhapur, Sangli and Latur.
Prabhu said at present a 50 kg onion bag is available at Rs 3,000 in the wholesale market.
“If one bag is purchased, then a wholesaler has to pay three percent of the onion price to the Maharashtra or Karnataka government, five percent to the market yard and one percent to the Goa government in form of tax. The agent takes two per cent of the price. Therefore, we have to pay 10 per cent taxes on a kilogram of onion. Then there is a transportation charge which is roughly Rs 15,000 for 10 tonnes of onion, if it is coming from Belagavi,” he said.
Sabhaji Honvekar, a wholesale onion trader from Belgaum said, “There is shortage of onions in the market. In Karnataka due to lack of rainfall farmers have grown onions on only 50 per cent of the land this year. And this is not new. This has been happening for the last four years as rain has been erratic.”
“Now only 15 per cent of the onion is left in the stock. This has put pressure on prices. Then the onions are exported. That too is to be taken care of. First we had late onset of monsoon. Then there was unseasonal rainfall in Maharashtra, which destroyed onion crops and flooded the godowns,” he said.