Department of Consumer Affairs procures 5.06 LMT onions for disposal through e-sales, e-Nam auction and bulk sale
New Delhi: To protect the consumers from the recent increase in onion prices due to the delay in the arrival of the kharif crop, the Central Government said it has initiated an “aggressive” retail sale of onions from the buffer at a subsidised price of Rs.25 per kilogram. As of today, onions are being sold in the retail market at Rs.70 per kg in Delhi.
“This comes as another measure in addition to the slew of measures put in place to ensure the availability and affordability of onion to domestic consumers such as the imposition of Minimum Export Price (MEP) of USD 800 per Metric Tonnes with effect from 29th October 2023, enhancement of buffer procurement by 2 lakh tonnes, over above 5.06 lakh tonnes already procured, and the continuous disposal of onion through retail sales, e-Nam auction and bulk sales in wholesale markets since the second week of August 2023,” the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution stated today.
Onions are now being disposed of by the Department of Consumer Affairs through retail outlets and mobile vans operated by the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India Limited (NCCF), the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited (NAFED), Kendriya Bhandar and other State controlled cooperatives at a subsidised price of Rs.25 per kg.
Till November 2, 2023, the Ministry said that NAFED had set up 329 retail points, consisting of stationary outlets and mobile vans, in 55 cities across 21 states. Similarly, NCCF set up 457 retail points in 54 cities across 20 states. Kendriya Bhandar too, started retail supply of onion through its retail outlets across Delhi-NCR from November 3, 2023, and Safal Mother Dairy will start from this weekend.
The retail sale of onion to consumers in Telangana and other southern states is being taken up by the Hyderabad Agricultural Cooperatives Association (HACA).
To control the seasonal price volatility between rabi and kharif crops the Government maintains onion buffer by procuring rabi onion for subsequent calibrated and targeted release. This year, the buffer size has been raised to 7 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) from 2.5 LMT in 2022-23. To date, 5.06 LMT of onion was procured and the procurement of the balance of 2 LMT is in progress.
“The proactive measures taken by the Government has started showing result as onion prices in the benchmark Lasalgaon market declined from Rs.4,800/quintal on 28.102023 to Rs.3,650/quintal on 03.11.2023, a decline of 24%. Retail prices are expected to show a similar decline from the coming week,” the Ministry stated.
The Ministry further recalled that when prices of tomatoes shot up from the last week of June 2023 due to supply disruptions caused by monsoon rains and white fly infestation, the Government intervened by procuring tomatoes through NCCF and NAFED from producing States of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra and supplied at a highly subsidised rate to consumers in major consumption centres. The procured tomatoes were sold to retail consumers at subsidized prices; starting with Rs.90 per kg and successively reduced to Rs.40 per kg. Through retail intervention, tomato retail prices were brought down from the peak, all-India average retail price of Rs.140 per kg during the first week of August to around Rs.40 per kg by the first week of September 2023.
Moreover, to ensure the availability and affordability of dal to ordinary households, the Government launched Bharat Dal at subsidized prices of Rs.60 per kg for 1 kg pack and Rs.55 per kg for a 30 kg pack. Bharat Dal is made available for retail sale to consumers and for supplies to the Army, Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and welfare schemes through NAFED, NCCF, Kendriya Bhandar, Safal and state-controlled cooperatives in Telangana and Maharashtra.
To date 3.2 LMT of Chana stock has been allocated for conversion out of which 75,269 MT has been milled and 59,183 MT has been through 3010 retail points (stationery outlets mobile vans) across 282 cities. The supply of Bharat Dal is being increased in the coming days to make over 4 lakh tons of Bharat Dal available to consumers throughout the country, the Ministry stated.
– global bihari bureau
