On December 8, 2023, the federal government put a home ban on the export of onions.
| Photo Credit: ANI
The Centre on April 27 stated it has allowed exports of 99,500 tonnes of onions, primarily sourced from Maharashtra, to six neighbouring nations regardless of the ban on shipments.
The Centre has additionally allowed exports of 2,000 tonnes of white onion cultivated, particularly, for export markets within the Middle East and a few European nations.
On December 8, 2023, the government banned export of onions.
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In an official assertion, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution stated the federal government has “allowed export of 99,150 tonnes of onion to six neighbouring countries of Bangladesh, UAE, Bhutan, Bahrain, Mauritius and Sri Lanka”.
The export prohibition has been imposed to guarantee enough home availability towards the backdrop of estimated decrease Kharif and Rabi crops in 2023-24 in contrast to the earlier 12 months.
The ban was imposed amid a rise in demand within the worldwide market, it added.
The National Cooperative Exports Limited (NCEL), the company for the export of onion to these nations, sourced the home onions to be exported by means of e-platform at L1 costs.
NCEL has equipped to the company or companies nominated by the federal government of the vacation spot nation on the negotiated fee on a 100 per cent advance cost foundation.
The provide fee of NCEL to the consumers takes into consideration the prevailing costs within the vacation spot market and in addition worldwide and home markets.
The quota allotted for export to the six nations is being equipped as per requisition made by the vacation spot nation.
“As the largest producer of onion in the country, Maharashtra is the major supplier of onions sourced by NCEL for export,” the assertion stated.
The authorities had additionally allowed the export of 2,000 tonnes of white onion cultivated, particularly for export markets within the Middle East and a few European nations.
“Being purely export-oriented, the production cost of the white onion is higher than other onions due to higher seed cost, adoption of good agricultural practice (GAP) and compliance to strict maximum residue limits (MRL) requirements,” the assertion stated.
The procurement goal for onion buffer out of Rabi crop 2024 underneath the Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) of the Department of Consumer Affairs has been fastened at 5 lakh tonnes this 12 months.
The Central companies, like NCCF and NAFED are tying up native companies like FPOs/FPCs/PACs to assist the procurement, storage and farmers registration to start the procurement of any store-worthy onion.
A high-level staff of the Department of Consumer Affairs, NCCF and NAFED visited Nashik and Ahmednagar districts of Maharashtra from April 11-13, 2024, to create consciousness among the many farmers, FPOs/FPCs and PACs in regards to the procurement of 5 lakh tonnes of onion for buffer inventory.
To cut back the storage loss of onions, the division has determined to improve the quantum of shares to be irradiated and chilly saved from 1,200 tonnes final 12 months to over 5,000 tonnes this 12 months, with technical assist from BARC, Mumbai.
The pilot of onion irradiation and chilly storage taken up final 12 months has been discovered to have resulted within the discount of storage loss to lower than 10 per cent, the assertion stated.
In March, the Union Agriculture Ministry launched the info for onion manufacturing.
As per the info, onion manufacturing in 2023-24 (First Advance Estimates) is anticipated to be round 254.73 lakh tonnes in contrast to round 302.08 lakh tonnes final 12 months.
This is due to a lower of 34.31 lakh tonne output in Maharashtra, 9.95 lakh tonne in Karnataka, 3.54 lakh tonne in Andhra Pradesh and three.12 lakh tonne in Rajasthan, the info confirmed.