BENGALURU: The quality of onions has dropped with the price. It will take three more weeks for the rates to be affordable and the quality to improve.Looking at early returns, farmers harvested the onions before the scheduled time and so the onion quality is not good, though the rate has dropped by Rs 50- 60 per kilo. The difference in price at the wholesale and retail markets is not much, depending on the quality.
Hopcoms assures to be selling superior quality onions at Rs 134 a kilo. Prasad Kumar, Hopcoms Managing Director, told The New Indian Express that since there is sufficient produce in the market, the cost has dropped. But as the crop was harvested prematurely, the water content in the onions is very high, and it will rot if stored for more than three days, he added.
He said the onion price will not come down immediately, but will gradually. The good quality onions will come by January, as the harvest was done in September-October. Normally, it takes 100-120 days for the onion to be ready for harvest and supply. But farmers harvested the crop earlier this year. Though the onion is ready, the water content in the bulb is rich because there has been no resting time for it to dry. The rates will get stabilised in January, said C Udayshankar, Secretary, Onion Traders’ Association.
Udayshankar said rates of perishable items cannot be fixed, it changes depending on the supply and the stock’s availability. “Since the new crop has been sown and farmers have understood the steady drop in price, the crop will be good in the coming days. With the availability of imported onions coming from Turkey and Egypt, the stock in the market is also good. This has also helped in controlling the rates,” he added.Retail customers are not preferring imported onions because of the size, colour and smell. This is another reason why there is sufficient stock in the market. So to clear stock, the wholesalers are requesting hoteliers and commercial units to take the imported onions so that the locally grown ones can be sold in the retail market.
Onion price in market
D100-110
Retail rates
D70-100
Wholesale rateD70
Rate of imported onion
It takes 100- 120 days for onions to be ready, normally