Wholesale onion dealers in the district have expressed confidence that the retail price of the vegetable will taper down from next week as they expect more consignments to arrive from Maharashtra soon.
Once the consignment from Maharashtra reaches here, the current retail price of onion will come down to an affordable level, says Chidambaram, a wholesale dealer in Kamaraj Market.
Although two tonnes of imported onion have reached Thanjavur and is being sold at ₹110 per kg, customers prefer to procure the Indian variety even if the retail price of ‘Bellary’ onion and shallots continues to rule high.
“This is because customers are not sure about the taste of imported onion,” he claims.
On the other hand, the imported onion was sold at ₹70 per kg on the pavement in the town on Tuesday although wholesale traders claim that it was sold to eateries only.
Meanwhile, cabbage appears to have replaced onion in the preparation of popular snacks such as samosa in some of the eateries in Tiruvarur during the past few days. Regular customers of retail shops have also turned their attention towards other vegetables in view of the burgeoning price tag of the bulbs, says a vendor.
Whether the arrival of imported onion will drag down the retail price of the Indian variety or not is in the hands of customers, he adds.
However, Jaguber Ahmed, a cloth merchant at Peravurani who has spent a few years in the construction sector in the Middle East, says imported onion will definitely not fit into the culinary expectations of Indians.
“Those onions are tasteless and odourless,” Mr. Ahmed points out.
The recent checks conducted by Civil Supplies CID sleuths at wholesale vegetable shops across the State have impacted the onion sales scenario.
“Already some of the traders, who wished to cash in on the demand-supply gap, have started moving the stock available with them to the market. This is because of the steps initiated by the government to check onion price hike in the market through imports and by inspecting the stock available with wholesalers”, a retailer points out.
