With the prices of onions on the way up once again in the wholesale market, the Centre has now decided to give Delhi an additional 300 metric tonnes of onions that would be imported by the State Trading Corporation.
The sale of these onions, which as per the Union Commerce Ministry would be of “bigger size,” will begin from January 7.
Delhi Food and Civil Supplies Department Secretary Jayashree Raghuraman said efforts would be made to sell these onions for less than Rs.40 per kg through the outlets of Mother Dairy, Kendriya Bhandar, National Consumers Cooperative Federation and NAFED that are already engaged in the sale of reasonably priced onions.
Incidentally, the cost of delivery of these imported onions in Delhi would be Rs.33 per kg and all the agencies engaged in their sale would work out the final price after considering the local transporation and handling charges.
As of now, Ms. Raghuraman said Mother Dairy is selling between 20 and 25 tonnes of onions through its outlets while the total sale of onions is around 300 tonnes in Delhi.
Acknowledging that there had been a decline in the arrivals of onions in the Azadpur wholesale vegetable market, the official said while on Saturday these arrivals had gone below 500 tonnes the situation has considerably improved over the past two days with over 640 tonnes coming on Monday.
She said while the wholesale price of onions ranged between Rs.45 per kg to Rs.10 per kg depending on the quality, in the retail the price was ruling at between Rs.55 and Rs.60 per kg.
``A positive development has been the arrival of the late kharif crop in many of the wholesale markets across India. It is said that this onion is drier and therefore has a better shelf life too,’’ she said.
Ms. Raghuraman said while there are adequate stocks of onion for sale through the government–run outlets in the coming days, the additional supplies through the Commerce Ministry would help ease the situation further. ``We are telling the agencies concerned to try and keep the retail price at less than Rs.40 per kg to benefit the people,’’ she added.
