New Delhi – In an effort to alleviate the burden of high onion prices on consumers, the Indian government has announced that Mother Dairy’s Safal outlets will sell buffer onions at a subsidized rate of Rs 25 per kg in Delhi-NCR. Similarly, the Hyderabad Agricultural Cooperatives Association will be selling buffer onions at a subsidized rate in Telangana and other southern states.
This move comes as cooperative bodies, NCCF and Nafed, have already been selling buffer onions on behalf of the central government. Nafed has set up 329 retail points across 55 cities in 21 states, while NCCF has established 457 retail points in 54 cities across 20 states.
Kendriya Bhandar has also joined in by providing retail supply of onions through its outlets in Delhi-NCR starting from November 3rd.
“The retail sale of onions to consumers in Telangana and other southern states is being taken up by Hyderabad Agricultural Cooperatives Association (HACA),” stated the consumer affairs ministry.
The ministry has taken an aggressive approach to retail the buffer stock of onions in order to provide relief to consumers amidst the recent increase in onion prices caused by delays in the arrival of the kharif crop.
Currently, the government has maintained a buffer stock of 5 lakh tonnes of onions for the year and plans to create an additional buffer of 2 lakh tonnes.
Though wholesale prices have shown a declining trend due to recent government measures, it takes time for these changes to reflect in retail markets. For instance, the wholesale price of onions was Rs 4,800 per quintal on October 28th, and it decreased to Rs 3,650 per quintal on November 3rd in the Lasalgaon market in Maharashtra, marking a decline of 24% in just a week.
“Retail prices are expected to show a similar decline from the coming week,” noted the ministry.
In the past, the government successfully intervened during a tomato price surge in June 2023 by procuring tomatoes from producing states and supplying them at a highly subsidized rate to consumers. The government has also launched Bharat Dal, a subsidized dal (lentil) priced at Rs 60 per kg, to ensure the availability and affordability of dal to ordinary households. Bharat Dal is made available for retail sale to consumers, as well as for supplies to the army and welfare schemes through various cooperatives and outlets.
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