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Onions Will Always Make You Cry: Skyrocketing Prices Leave Indians in Tears

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Onion - Sputnik International
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New Delhi (Sputnik): Indian consumers are being forced to cut back on onions with the price of the basic foodstuff reaching almost Rs. 100 a kilo, up from just Rs.20-30 a kilo a few weeks ago. Prices are expected to remain high, at least until February.

Twitterati are using social media to vent out their anger with some targeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other ministers over their failure to curb onion prices.

 

Onion prices have become a hot topic. For the past few weeks, onion prices have trending higher even as the government has tried to increase the supply of this key kitchen staple.

Earlier, retailers were allowed to hold onion stock of up to 10 tonnes and wholesalers up to 50 tonnes. But now, they are allowed to just hold half of it, as per an order issued by the Central Government’s Consumer Affairs Ministry. The revised stock holding limit is not applicable for imported onions.

The price increase is due to falling production. On 19 November, Indian Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said onion production was set to fall 26 percent to 5.2 million tonnes.

Besides imposing stock holding limits, the government has already banned exports. It has also decided to import 102,000 tonnes of onions to improve the domestic supply and control prices.

State-owned trading firm Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation of India (MMTC), the country's largest public sector trading body, has imported onions and has placed an order for 11,000 tonnes of edible bulb from Turkey. The firm is already importing 6,090 tonnes from Egypt.

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