Mandis in Nasik district of Maharashtra, the hub of the country’s wholesale onion trade, remained closed for the second day in a row on Thursday as traders remained on an “indefinite strike” demanding removal of export duty, reduction in mandi fees and stopping of agencies such as Nafed and National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India (NCCF) from selling onion in the market yard.
The strike, if continued, is likely to disrupt domestic supplies and may push up prices.
Traders said that the government’s onion buffer stock should be sold in retail markets via ration shops instead of APMCs. Onion traders said as both the agencies are selling the produce much lesser than prevailing wholesale prices at APMCs
Traders have disrupted by also demanding mandi fees to be reduced from 1% to 0.5% of the transaction value and scrapping of 40% export duty on onion.
Khandu Devre, president of the Nashik district onion traders association, said that talks held with Maharashtra government on Thursday was inconclusive and future course of actions will be decided on Friday.
Around one hundred thousand quintals of onions are auctioned in the 15 APMCs in Nasik out of which around 30,000 quintals are auctioned at Lasalgaon and its two sub-market yards.
According to the department, the modal retail prices of onion rose from Rs 20/kg since the beginning of last month to Rs 30/kg on Thursday.
Inflation in onion, which had been in the negative zone since September, 2021, rose to 23.18% in August.
Retail prices of onion have started to rise for the first time in the middle of the last month after nearly two years due to reports of sluggish kharif sowing on delayed arrival of monsoon in the key producing states of Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Last month, to improve domestic supplies and curb price rise, the government had imposed an export duty of 40% on onion exports till December 31, 2023.
This was the first intervention in onion exports since January, 2021. The government has not imposed a ban on onion exports since 2021 which was the norm a few years back.
NCCF and Nafed are currently selling onion from the buffer stock of 0.3 million tonne at a highly subsidised rate of Rs 25/kg to consumers in various areas.