SHIVAMOGGA: Onion prices may touch the Rs 100-per-kg mark within the next month, or by the time of the Gowri Ganesha festival next month. The prices have surged from Rs 25 per kg to Rs 50 per kg in the wholesale market, while retail outlets are currently selling them for around Rs 65 per kg. Even though the Central government has taken several measures to regulate prices, they do not appear to have the desired effect.
Wholesale onion merchant Manohara Gowda told TNIE, “The quantity of onions procured by the Central government will not be sufficient to meet public demand, as the volume purchased is very small. Due to deficient rainfall, there will be no fresh arrivals from the state’s major onion-growing areas. This is also likely to contribute to a further increase in prices by the time of the Gowri Ganesha festival.”
Gowda said excessive rainfall in some onion-growing areas of Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region also reduced crop yields.
Onions are cultivated in Gadag, Vijayapura, Bagalkote, parts of Chitradurga and Chikkamagaluru districts in Karnataka. However, during this monsoon, growers could not cultivate onions at the usual scale because of inadequate rainfall.
As onion is largely a rain-fed crop, the rainfall deficit has made conditions difficult for farmers.
Ramu, another wholesale onion dealer, told TNIE, “We source onions from Nashik and other parts of the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. Due to insufficient rainfall, onion production has declined. We expect fresh supplies to arrive in the market by mid-October. Until then, because of the limited supply from Maharashtra, prices are likely to continue rising.”
Meanwhile, the diesel price rise has pushed up the cost of several commodities, including rice, sugar, jaggery, edible oils and pulses, cascading to higher food prices in restaurants. The prices of popular dishes such as onion dosa, pani puri, masala puri, and other onion-based foods may also increase in the coming days.