HYDERABAD: The price of onions at the Malakpet onion market here on Thursday was a whopping 1,566 per cent more than what it was last year.
As per data from the Telangana agriculture marketing department, the maximum price of grade-II onions on Dec 5 last year was Rs 600 per quintal, while on Thursday it was Rs 10,000. The cost of grade-I onions has also seen a massive jump.
The maximum price on Dec 5 last year was Rs 1,400 per quintal, and it jumped to Rs 12,000 on Thursday. Retailers, meanwhile, jacked up the prices even more.
Good-quality onions were sold at Rs 150-180 per kg on Friday, and though the vegetable was available even for Rs 80 per kg, most cheaper onions were small and soiled.
The volume of onions brought to the city has declined drastically. Last year, between December 1 and 5, the Malakpet onion market received 37,735 quintals of the vegetable (both grade-I and grade-II onions). In comparison, the market received just 14,574 quintals in the same period this year.
“Hyderabad has never seen such high onion prices. It used to go up to Rs 7,000 or Rs 8,000 per quintal and fall, but this time, it is on a continuous rise,” said Duggu Uday Kumar, an onion commission agent at the Malakpet market.
“The price of onions is expected to increase even more as there has been a drastic drop in supply from Karnataka and other states.
The supply from Kurnool and onions from Mahbubnagar and other districts has almost stopped. The supply from Maharashtra is very low due to the impact of heavy rains there. Prices there have skyrocketed to as much as Rs 20,000 per quintal,” he added.
An official from the Telangana agriculture marketing department said, “The price of lower-quality of onions is less than Rs 100 per kg. In Rythu Bazaar, onions are being sold at Rs 40 per kg. Around 100 tonnes of imported onions are expected to arrive in the city in a week.”