West Bengal government eyes Rajasthan supply as onion brings tears

KOLKATA: With onions breaching the Rs 100 mark in retail markets and the prices showing no signs of dipping, the Bengal government is working on modalities to procure the staple vegetable from Rajasthan.
“Almost 70% of the demand in the state is met by supplies from Nashik and Akola in Maharashtra. But due to untimely rains this year the supply from these places has taken a hit leading to a spike in prices. Supply from Karnataka and Telangana has also dried up. The government has started working on the process of procuring onions from other states. Rajasthan produces a good quantity of the vegetable. The agricultural marketing department has been given the responsibility to work out the modalities,” said Abdur Rezzak Mollah, minister for food processing industries and horticulture. The minister warned that the prices are unlikely to decline at least for the next few days.

TimesViewThere needs to be closer monitoring of price movements, especially when there is a demand-supply gap. An abnormal rise in retail rates indicates profiteering.

Government officials and those associated with the trade could not recall the vegetable ever being procured from Rajasthan to bridge the demand-supply gap.
“Onions from Rajasthan are crimson in colour and taste sweet. A very small amount of this variety is sold in Kolkata during this time. But I cannot recall the government procuring onions directly from Raj-asthan in the past few years,” said Rabindranath Koley, a member of the government’s task force.
On Tuesday, onion prices dipped marginally in the wholesale markets — on news that rates have dropped slightly in Nashik — but retail prices continued to hover between Rs 100 and Rs 110 per kg. “We expect the prices in the retail market to come down marginally in the next couple of days but there would be no substantial decline since there is a huge gap between supply and demand. This may continue till the second week of December,” said Kamal Dey, president of the West Bengal Vendors’ Association and a member of the CM’s task force.
Members of the task force visited a couple of municipal markets in Salt Lake and claimed the prices had come down to Rs 80 per kg but residents who visited the market claimed they had paid upwards of Rs 100.
“Not only is the price very high, the stock with the vendors is also very low. This is automatically creating a scarcity and spiking the price further. Onions are a staple in most kitchens and it is becoming difficult to think of dishes where onions are not required,” said Ayantika Das, a homemaker in Salt Lake.
West Bengal along with some other states will also receive a tranche of onions the central government has imported from Turkey and Egypt. 

 

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