CHENNAI: At Rs 120 per kg, small onions have become a luxury for most in the city. Poor supply from neighbouring States like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh as well as drought in Tamil Nadu has pushed the prices up and, recently, many retail shops simply don’t have any.
Small onions, also known as ‘sambhar vengayam’ in trade lingo, is an inevitable ingredient of Tamil cuisine. S Chandran, the president of the Koyambedu Wholesale Merchants Association, said: “The market used to get Rs 40-50 tonnes of small onions per day from Karnataka, but it is now reduced to half. For example, today we received only 20 tonnes which has triggered the rise in price.”
At the Koyambedu wholesale market, the lowest quality of small onions is sold at Rs 80-90. The price goes up to Rs 100 for a better lot. In Koyambedu’s retail market, the minimum price is Rs 100 per kg. The price in the T Nagar retail market is between Rs 100-120.
The Koyambedu market procures small onions from the Trichy markets which actually gets its supply from Mysore in Karnataka, Thuraiyur and Perambalur in Tamil Nadu.
Lack of rainfall has affected the small onion yield in our State forcing us to depend on neighbouring states for supply, said R Jayakumar, a wholesale trader at Koyambedu market. “Small onions being our major product of trade, we usually tend to buy at least 5 tonnes per day. But we now limit ourselves to 2 tonnes due to inadequacy in supply and hence the price hike. At normal times, the price of small onions would be as low as Rs 20-30 per kg,” he added.
“We usually get at least 3-4 kg of small onions but with this price, we just have to cut down its usage. If we spend Rs 400 on small onions alone, it will really hit our budget,” said a couple who were purchasing at a semi-wholesale small onion shop at Koyambedu market.
“I just have to replace it with big onions wherever possible,” said B Ambika, at the vegetable market in T Nagar, lamenting that sambhar won’t be the same without small onions.
In contrast to small onions, big onions were available at just Rs 15 per kg at the retail markets of the city.