The prices of onions in Bengaluru, which had gone up to Rs 200 as recently as two months ago, have witnessed a sharp fall in January. Onions at wholesale markets in Bengaluru are currently being sold at Rs 40 per kg following the recent harvest in Tumakuru was sent to the city, The Hindu reported.
The onion prices in Bengaluru had witnessed a steep climb in November 2019, going from Rs 30 to Rs 100, and even touching Rs 200 at a point in December 2019. Opposition parties across the country had lashed out against the union government over the rising prices as several places in India witnessed an 'onion crisis'.
According to some traders quoted by The Hindu, onion prices in Bengaluru are expected to fall even further, as low as Rs 10, in the coming months. This is because onion farmers, fearing a crunch, had planted an excess of onions in their fields to make up for the demand in the market and to try and make more money.
Speaking to TNM, Sanjeev Reddy, an onion farmer from Gadag, says he is happy with the prices that his onion harvest has fetched in the past few months.
“We made a profit of more than 12 lakhs in December when we came to Bengaluru with our trucks of 800 bags of onions. We are very content about this and we plan to rest this season.”
Many other farmers also cashed in on the crisis, selling their produce of 1 quintal (1 ton) at a highly inflated price of Rs 20,000, when the usual price per quintal for high-quality onions is around Rs 4,000.
Shivanand, another onion farmer, tells TNM that Maharashtrian farmers were the ones who suffered the most from the onion crop loss. “Many of our onion crops were lost in the rain, but what we managed to save, we got well compensated for that. My brothers in Maharashtra were not so lucky,” he muses.
Meanwhile, due to the soaring cost of vegetables, retail inflation in the month of December 2019 stood at 7.35%, the highest since May 2014. Vegetable prices across India had increased by 60.50 per cent last month.