Modi Government Extends Onion Export Ban to March 31 for Price Control

GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 29th Feb. The export of onions is prohibited by the central government through March 31, 2024, the end of this fiscal year. The Central Government is working to ensure that onions are available in the domestic market and to keep prices under control, according to Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade announced on December 8, 2023 of last year that exporting onions would be prohibited until March 31, 2024. The Central Government is still doing this today, continuing an earlier trend. However, after approval from the Inter-Ministerial Group, permission has been given to export onions to friendly countries keeping in view the relations with them and other conditions.

Will onion become cheaper now?

Last year in October 2023, the central government had decided to increase the sale of buffer onion stock at a concessional rate of Rs 25 per kg in the retail markets to provide relief to the common people. Onion exports were prohibited as of August 2023 and would remain so until December 31, 2023. The price of onions in Lasalgaon, the nation’s largest wholesale market, increased by 40.62 % to Rs 1,800 per quintal on February 19, the day the export ban began to take effect. Considering that the ban has been extended, will its price go down?

The price had increased as a result of the export ban being lifted

The largest wholesale onion market in the country, Lasalgaon, saw a 40.62% increase in wholesale onion prices on February 19, rising from Rs 1,280 per quintal on February 17 to Rs 1,800 per quintal on February 19, amid news of the lifting of the export ban. According to sources, it is unlikely that the ban will be lifted after March 31—not even before the general elections—because low “coverage,” particularly in Maharashtra, is expected to result in low Rabi (winter) onion production. It is predicted that 2.27 crore tonnes of onions will be produced during the Rabi season in 2023. In the upcoming days, representatives from the Agriculture Ministry will evaluate the “coverage” of Rabi onions in the main producing states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra.

What effect did it have on retail markets?

The Consumer Ministry’s website provides data indicating that on February 19 and 20, the average price per kg of onions in retail markets was Rs 32.26 and Rs 32.43, respectively. In Chhattisgarh, the price of onions was 11.46% higher on February 20 than it was on February 19. Aside from this, the retail prices of onions have increased marginally in the past two days in Goa, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Telangana, Nagaland, Mizoram, and Uttar Pradesh alone. In some states, onions are now less expensive.