Government committed to purchase onion amid rising prices, says secretary

New Delhi: According to Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh, the central government will continue to purchase onions from farmers and its intervention in both retail and wholesale will continue.

He also stressed the importance of balancing the interests of both farmers and consumers and said that “their interests are equally important.”

The secretary said, “If needed, we can increase the purchase of onions. Out of the seven lakh tonne target (as buffer stock), we had procured 510,123 tonne.”

This assurance of the government has come amid rising prices of onion in the Indian markets.
Singh said that the government is purchasing onions at an average rate of Rs 25-26 per kg. “Due to the government policy, traders and exporters who were purchasing at lower rates and exporting at higher rates with huge margins have now been affected,” the secretary said. He also highlighted that the time But government intervention prevented onion prices from reaching Rs 100 per kg last month.
“If the central government had not taken timely action, onion prices would have reached Rs 100 per kg in November,” he said.

At present, onion is being sold at around Rs 60 per kg in retail markets.
Last week, India had banned onion exports till March 2024, with relaxations granted by the central government based on requests from other countries. According to a government notification, “However, export of onion will be allowed on the basis of permission given by the Central Government to other countries based on the requests made by the countries.”

However, the Central Government had exempted the export of ‘Bangalore Rose Onion’ from export duty with a small condition: the goods meant for export will be allowed to be exported provided the exporter obtains permission from the Horticulture Commissioner, Government of India. Submit a certificate. Karnataka certifies the commodity and quantity of Bangalore Rose Onion to be exported.

Bangalore Rose Onion is a variety of onion grown in and around Bengaluru, Karnataka. This variety received the Geographical Indication tag in 2015.

Facing rising onion prices, the central government is releasing the staple vegetable from its buffer stock.
Initially set at 3 lakh tonnes for the 2023-24 season, the buffer stock target was later revised to 7 lakh tonnes.

In 2022-23, the government maintained a buffer stock of 3 lakh tonnes of onion for emergencies and price stabilization during the low supply season.