Wholesale onion prices crash at Nashik

Shoaib Ahmed , CNN-IBN
Posted on Jan 24, 2011 at 02:22pm IST

=================================================
Mumbai: Onion prices have crashed at Lasalgaon, Nashik’s wholesale market due to sudden increase in the supply. Wholesale onion prices have plummetted to Rs 13 a kg in Lasalgaon.

On Saturday morning average quality onion price at Lasalgaon was Rs 2600 per quintal (Rs 26 per kg). On Monday, it came down to Rs 1300 per quintal.

The sudden downturn in onion prices seems to have been triggered by the fact that the wholesale markets were shut for two days during which new arrivals accumulated at the markets. Also, the arrival of the third season crop from January 14 onwards has pushed the supply up, thereby resulting in a substantive drop in prices.

As a short-term measure to stem rising onion prices, the Centre had banned export till January 15. With the ban still being in place, there has been a rise in supply.

Meanwhile onion farmers are protesting in Lasalgaon and Manmad markets. The markets opened as usual at 10 am but by 12 pm farmers decided against selling off their produce at the low rate.

=================================================