The price of onions has gone up from ₹60 a kilo almost 10 days back to ₹75, with retailers warning that a kilo of the bulb could cost ₹80 later this week. On Monday, onions sold for ₹75 a kilo at most of Calcutta’s markets.
Bengal requires around 10 lakh tons of onions annually. Around this time of the year, when local produce is unavailable, the state depends on supplies from Nashik in Maharashtra and parts of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar.
Traders in Calcutta’s wholesale onion markets said heavy rain in Nashik in October had hit the supply from Maharashtra. Officials in the food processing industries and horticulture department said the rain had damaged around 21,000 hectares of onion.
The Bangladesh government’s decision to waive import duty on onions till mid-January has compounded the problem as onion traders in India are now keener on exporting the produce than feeding the domestic market.
