New Delhi: To prevent further spike in retail prices of onions, central agency SFAC has more than doubled the supply of the key kitchen staple to 250 tonnes a day in the national capital market and NCR areas.
The Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) and the National Agricultural Co-operative Marketing Federation (NAFED) have together procured 7,000-8,000 tonnes onions from Nasik, Maharashtra using the Price Stabalisation Fund (PSF).
On its part, Delhi government has procured 2,000 tonnes of onions and the stocks have been stored with the SFAC.
Retail prices of the key kitchen staple are ruling at Rs 55-60 per kg in the national capital, taking cues from Lasalgaon near Nasik -- Asia's biggest onion market -- where wholesale rate has risen to Rs 40 per kg.
"We have increased onion supplies to 250 tonnes a day from 100 tonnes a week before. We are supplying 25 percent of the total daily arrival of 1,000 tonnes in Delhi," SFAC Managing Director Parvesh Sharma told PTI.
He said that increasing supplies of onions has helped moderate wholesale prices by Rs 4-5/kg.
SFAC, which is also marketing onions stock of Nafed, is selling onions through Mother Dairy's Safal outlets, Delhi Milk Scheme (DMS)'s 100 booths and Big Bazaar.
Onions at DMS booths are being sold at a fixed rate of Rs 34 per kg, much below the market rate of Rs 45-50 per kg, while the prices at Safal are being fixed by the Mother Dairy itself. Safal is selling at Rs 49/kg. He added.
The Delhi government has also started selling onions at Rs 40 per kg through fair price shops at 280 locations in Delhi and NCR areas.
Onion prices are rising in Delhi and other parts of the country due to production fall and sluggish supply of stored onions meant for meeting the demand during the lean period of July-September.
As of now, about 30 lakh tonnes of stored onion is left in the domestic market to cater to the demand till September.
Total onion production is estimated at 189 lakh tonnes in 2014-15 crop year (July-June), slightly lower than 194 lakh tonnes in the year-ago.
Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh are the top three onion producing states in the country.
