Onion prices once again bring tears to consumers’ eyes in Delhi, Kolkata

The onion prices in Delhi have gone up to ₹90 per kilogram after a short relief. Multiple steps taken by both the Central and State Governments have failed to control the steep rise in onion prices.

Vegetable vendors in Delhi are selling medium-sized onions at ₹90 per kilogram, while the smaller ones are being sold at ₹70 per kilogram.

Earlier, in the first week of November, the price of onions had crossed ₹100 per kilogram mark, forcing Kejriwal Government to take strong measures to curb the prices.

Some reports of onions being sold at ₹100 in South Delhi have also raised concerns among the people residing in these part of the city.

According to a report in Millennium post, Some residents of South Delhi even said that many local vegetable vendors in their area have stopped bringing onions to the localities as they cannot afford to buy them at such high rates from the wholesale markets.

The Kejriwal government had arranged for mobile vans to sell onions at a discounted price of ₹23.90 per kilogram. Also, the first tranche of 6,090 metric tonnes of onions imported by the Centre from Egypt will reach Mumbai port probably in the first week of December.

Not only Delhi but onion prices are bringing tears in the eyes of its consumers in Bengal as well, with a kilo of the staple costing a whopping ₹100 on Monday in some city retail markets.

The vegetable not only scored a "century', its price shot even higher in a few markets.

Onions here had been selling at ₹70-80 a kilo over the past couple of weeks.

Traders, however, felt the price would hover around the present figure, if not at a higher range for a few more days, as the state's decision to import onions from Rajasthan and Karnataka to boost the stock would see on-ground effect only next month.

A member of the state task force on vegetables said the situation worsened because of the heavy rains in Maharastra's Nashik, which resulted in a large quantity of the bulb rotting following water seepage.

Maharashtra supplies about 70,000 tones of onion to Bengal every month, out of the state's total requirement of one lakh tonnes. Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh supplies the rest.

The onion supply from Nashik is expected to arrive in the metropolis in mid-December, when the prices would ease further.