Nanasaheb Patil, chairman, Lasalgaon Agriculture Product Market Committee (APMC) said that India's daily consumption of onion is 35,000 tonnes while the imported quantity is only 10,000 tonnes. He questioned what the government will do once the stored stock has been consumed.
Onion traders say that the cost of the imported onions is almost Rs 30 per kg so in the retail market it will be sold at Rs 50 per kg.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar blamed the BJP led government for only accounting for the consumer not the farmers. "It has been more than one year that the BJP is in power in both, the state and center level but none of what is happening around onion is benefiting the producers – the farmers. The second onion season is also in a shaky position. Onions will not be able to be planted if there is no rainfall in the coming week. The present condition of the plant is quite delicate. It will not survive without receiving more water," said Sanjay Patil, a farmer from Nasik.
Meanwhile, onion traders in city have a new job - to safeguard their onions from the hawkish eyes of the onion thieves. In Mumbai, 700 kg of onion (worth Rs 50,000) was recently stolen from a shop.
Other traders have said that with the prices increasing, some of the workers try to snatch onions here and there while loading and unloading the onions in trucks.
