Tirupati: Onion prices continue to soar

Tirupati: A severe supply shortage of onions has led the prices to soar to Rs 100 in the retail market for the past few days. The surge in the price of the most common ingredient of dishes is bringing tears to the eyes of commoners. In the absence of any controlling mechanism, the prices of almost all the vegetables have been skyrocketing for the past two months. Even the leafy vegetables are being sold at high prices affecting the monthly budgets of the families adversely.

The onion prices have been on the rise almost for the past one month to touch Rs 100 in the retail market now. Even in Rythu Bazar, the price was between Rs 70-80 depending on the quality and size. The street vendors have been selling them by adding their profits and most of them were selling small sized onions at Rs 80-90 and medium size at Rs 100.

They have been saying that the bigger size onions have to be sold for Rs 120 which may not be profitable for them. They argue that it was not easy for them to sell onions these days as they were getting huge depreciation with rotting of the vegetable.

Consumers are blaming the government for its poor planning in making the required quantities of onions available. "Even after paying a hefty price, we could not get good quality onions. All veggies being sold at huge prices and it has become a Herculean task to manage the budget," commented a housewife Madhavi.

Though people were suspecting hoarding by middlemen to create an artificial shortage that caused the supply-demand imbalance leading to the rise in prices, the officials are denying it. They were of the view that the monsoon has disrupted the supplies as the state relies more on Maharashtra which is one of the major producers of onions.

Assistant director, marketing, K Indumathi, told The Hans India that the district gets onion supplies from Sholapur, Nasik and other places in Maharashtra which were witnessing huge rains. With this, the required quantities could not be imported. But, the officials were at it and drawing out an action plan to bring more supplies at subsidised rate.

"Procurement has already started and we are getting about 20 tonne to Chittoor district from NAFED. They will be sold at Rythu Bazars in the next 3-4 days and the subsidised onion sales may continue till the prices come down to normal level,"Indumathi said. It may be recalled that the Government of India has already banned export of onion from September 14 in view of the rise in prices.