Despite arrival of large quantity of onion from Egypt, Dindigul wholesale onion market, one of the biggest markets in the State, has been struggling to stabilise the price of onion owing lack of patronage among retailers to imported onion.
Prices of Bellary onion were hovering between Rs.50 and Rs.60 in the wholesale market on Wednesday and between Rs.70 and Rs.80 in the retail market.
Even as the imported onion is available at a much lesser price — Rs.35 or Rs.38 a kg — on the basis of size, retailers have never evinced their interest to procure it. Colour, aroma, taste and spiciness of imported onion are entirely different from domestic onion. Moreover, imported onion is red in colour with mild flavour, less pungent and less or no spicy.
Retailers fear that women and cooks in hotels will not prefer such less-spicy and mild-flavour onion. “We cannot push them in domestic market,” one of them said.
The market received 100 tonnes of onion from Egypt on Wednesday.
At the same time, it has received 300 tonnes of Bellary onion from Maharashtra and Karnataka. Entire stock was cleared within few hours even as its prices were very high when compared to imported ones.
With poor response from retail vendors in Dindigul, the wholesale merchants have shipped the entire arrival of imported onion to Kerala where demand is very high.
Briefing the present trend in wholesale market, wholesale trader A. Marimuthu says that onion imported from Egypt has been sent to all parts of Tamil Nadu to maintain supply. But its colour and flavour do not attract local people.
Prices of onion will shoot up further in the months to come as this monsoon will affect onion production. Ultimately, poor arrival of big onion to the market will shoot up prices further, he says.
With failure of monsoon in the country this year, arrival of big onion was dwindling in the past one month. The Central government had imported onion from Pakistan and Egypt to maintain supply and prevent price rise.
However, prices of small onion (shallots) are stable in the market. Price oscillates between Rs.25 and Rs.45 on the basis of quality, size and shelf life. The market received 2,000 bags of small onion on Wednesday morning.
