HYDERABAD: The market yard of Mahbub Mansion at Malakpet in the city is packed to the rafters with huge sacks of onion. The produce is brought to the city from neighbouring districts of Mahbubnagar and nearby states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
The supply is so much that for the first time in the season, the market yard has received more than 27,000 bags on a single day, which has triggered a crash in the wholesale prices.The price was around `60 to `70 per kg a month back, but is started falling for the last one week and on Monday it was hovering around ` 5 to `20 per kg.
“The opening bids for onion started from `20 per kg (for new and top grade stock), but soon the price plummeted and by noon, it was selling for `5 or `8 per kg, depending on the quality of the stock,” said a marketing official from Malakpet Gunj.
The cyclical drop and rise of bulb crop might be a good news for households but they have effected farmers and wholesale traders in the capital.
“The reason can be attributed to steep rise in the production and surplus supply from neighbouring state and recently, the market has started importing onions from Karnataka as well,” said J Venkat Reddy, Secretary Grade III, Malakpet Gunj.
He said that presently the market is getting January’s harvest from Maharashtra.It is being said in the marketyard circles that there is no chance that traders are not going to make any profit as the prices may come down again.
However, farmers at the city’s oldest wholesale market are now struggling to move their produce and get minimum support price from the traders. “The demand has dropped drastically due to huge harvest,” the official said.