The price of onions has almost doubled in India in the wake of the post-monsoon rainfall that lashed large parts of Maharashtra last week.
The rains not only damaged the onion crop, the storms were so bad that onions in storehouses were also affected.
Housewife Malini Gadre told the Times Of India she had to bargain hard with vendors at the Mahatma Phule market in Pune, where onions were being sold at Rs32 per kg on Wednesday.
"I bought onions for Rs15 to Rs20 a kg a week ago. Today they are Rs32 a kg in the retail market. There is need for government intervention in this matter,” she said.
Pune’s Agriculture Commerce Market Committee (APMC) usually receives around 1,000 tonnes of onion every day at this time of year, but supply levels are now half that.
Rajendra Korpe, senior commission agent from the Gultekdi market, said relief was still some time away.
“There is little possibility that the prices will come down in the next few days. Prices may come down in December as the onion supply from Bhavnagar market in Gujarat starts by then," he said.
The state government has scheduled a cabinet meeting in Mumbai for Thursday to assess the loss to various crops and calculate the amount of damage and compensation to be made available.
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