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Export ban on onions will be lifted by Monday, Hegde assures Rane

Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane said today that Union Commerce Minister Ramakrishna Hegde has assured him that the ban on onion exports will be lifted within the next couple of days.

Rane spoke with Hegde on telephone regarding the ongoing agitation of the farmers in Nashik, the onion bowl of Asia. The farmers are protesting the export ban. They have been incurring heavy losses due to slump in prices caused by production glut.

Lifting of the export ban will help the farmers to secure good price for their produce, Rane told the Union commerce minister. The farmers, he said, were facing heavy losses as the prices ruled lowest between Rs 400 and Rs 600 per quintal due to heavy arrivals in the market against Rs 1,700 to Rs 2,700 per quintal last year.

More than 100,000 quintals of onion arrived in the market last month against an average arrival of 40,000 quintals during October, November and December during the last season. On an average, 3,500 quintals of onions are arriving in the market every day, he pointed out.

The Centre had last year imposed temporary ban on export of onions effective till January 31 this year, following steep price rise in the domestic market due to shortage of the bulb vegetable.

The price crash caused by the glut in production during the current season has reversed the situation, forcing the farmers to protest the export ban.

Prior to the ban, the 300,000 tonnes of onion were exported every year from the state which produces 1.25 million tonnes of the bulb vegetable. It also catered 300,000 tonnes of this commodity to other states while the domestic consumption of the state was of the order of about 600,000 tonnes.

The farmers stopped auction of onion at the market yards of Gultekdi in Pune and Lasalgaon in Nashik to press their demand. The farmers have also threatened indefinite closure of wholesale markets of onion throughout the state.

Besides complete lifting of export ban, the farmers are also demanding a guarantee price of Rs 700 per quintal from the state government to enable them to overcome the present crisis.

UNI

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