By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR/CUTTACK: The Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs Avinash K Srivastava on Monday held video conferencing with State Governments to analyse their demand. The Secretary has also written a letter to Chief Secretaries of all States on 23rd November, 2019 in this regard. MMTC has placed order for the first consignment of 6090 MT of Onions from Egypt which will be arriving at Nhava Sheva (JNPT), Mumbai.
The Onions are being offered to State Governments for distribution at the rate of Rs. 52-55 per kilogram ex-Mumbai and will also be made available at the rate of Rs. 60 per kilogram ex-Delhi. State Governments may take the stock from the location on their own and also have the option of getting transportation facilitated through NAFED, if required. The supply of imported onions will begin from early December onwards.
For Delhi, while the demand from the State government is yet to be provided, NAFED has informed that it will retail onions through its own outlets and those of Mother Dairy, Kendriya Bhandar and NCCF.
The total demand received so far from various State Governments for the 1st week is 2265 MT which includes demand from the State of Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Kerala and Sikkim and also includes the demand of NAFED for supplies in Delhi. Other States have been requested to indicate their demand at the earliest so that the same can be facilitated by the Union Government.
Meanwhile, prices of onions reached from Rs 90 to Rs 110 at many places in Odisha. In Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, sellers taking Rs 100 to Rs 110 and in other parts, it was reported between Rs 90 and Rs 100.
Devendra Sahoo, secretary of Chhatra Bazar Traders’ Association in Cuttack informed that there is no consistency in onion prices particularly in Nashik (Maharashtra) and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh from where bulk of the onion stock is imported to Odisha.
Usually, Odisha gets onion stock from Bolangir and other parts of the State during the month of April-May while bulk of the stock is procured from Nashik and other parts of the country for the remaining 10 months.
