Over 100 vans to sell cheap onions from Monday: Dikshit

New Delhi, Oct 26 (IANS) Over 100 mobile vans, covering 600 areas in the capital, will be selling onions at cheaper prices from Monday, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said.

"In the past three days, vans have been deployed at various parts of Delhi to provide onions at Rs.55 per kg. The number has gone up to 80 today (Saturday) and will be further increased to 125 from Monday," she said.

Later, Dikshit said she was sorry about the high prices of onions and added that her government was doing its best to control prices.

"I am sorry about high prices of onion ... it affects everybody ... we are doing our best to control the situation," Dikshit told CNN-IBN channel in an interview.

As per Dikshit, each van will cover four areas in a day.

In addition, a large number of counters have been opened outside Azadpur, Okhla, Ghazipur and Keshopur markets for selling onions at cheaper prices.

The enforcement wing has been alerted to curb any attempt at hoarding onions.

Dikshit said the price of onions had "already come down and we hope the trend would continue".

According to the chief minister, the arrival of onions from Rajasthan is picking up rapidly.

"Over the past three days, the arrival of onions from Rajasthan rose substantially and the arrival of bulbs from Karnataka and other states will improve the situation. A team of officers has been deputed to Alwar (in Rajasthan) to purchase onions in bulk," she said.

With the model code of conduct in place ahead of the Dec 4 assembly polls, the Election Commission Friday gave permission to the Delhi government to sell onions from mobile vans at various sites.

Stating Delhi imports all its onions from other states, Dikshit said onions were being hoarded in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

Noting the Dec 4 assembly polls were important, she said the city had changed in the past 15 years due to good governance of the Congress government.

"We will face the polls with confidence," she said.

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Pakistani onions bring down prices in Kashmir

Srinagar, Oct 26 (IANS) Onion prices started decreasing here Saturday because of its arrival from Pakistan.

Onions were selling at Rs.100 per kg here till Friday, but recorded a decline in prices Saturday with retail traders selling it at Rs.75 per kg.

The wholesale onion traders here are attributing the fall in prices to the arrivals from Pakistan.

"Onions have arrived here through LoC trade from Chakan Da Bagh and also from Punjab after their import from Pakistan.

"This has brought down the wholesale price of onions in Srinagar and other parts of the Valley. We sold Pakistani onions at Rs.55-60 per kg in the wholesale market today (Saturday) morning.

"Retailers are now selling the same at Rs.70-75 per kg in the markets," said Abdul Hamid, 50, a wholesale vegetable trader here.

Another wholesale trader Muzaffar Ahmad, 48, said the onions from Nasik, Maharashtra, are the most sought after here as these are of a better quality.

"Nasik onions are better than those reaching here from Pakistan," he said.

Muhammad Ashfaq, also a wholesale vegetable trader, said, "Onion prices will start coming down after Diwali as yield from other parts of the country would start reaching the markets."

"Now that the prices have started coming down, the tendency of bulk buying will also be checked," he added.

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India looks to China, Iran for onions to cool political heat

By Rajendra Jadhav

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India has become so desperate for fresh stocks of the onions it uses in spicy curries that it is turning to regional rival China and sanctions-hit Iran for supplies, and there is even talk of airlifts to ease soaring prices.

But despite a swirl of high-level meetings on Thursday, the government is unlikely to land imports in substantial quantities before state elections begin on November 11, with state-run firms struggling to clinch deals and private players risk-averse.

Indians eat their way through 15 million tonnes of onions a year, using them as the base for traditional dishes such as biryani and bhaji. This has made high prices a hot potato that has in the past contributed to the fall of state governments.

Retail prices of onions have quadrupled in three months - now costing over 100 rupees a kilo, which is what a third of the population live on per day - as a supply squeeze caused by wet weather has hampered harvests.

Farm and food ministers met with Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in New Delhi on Thursday to discuss ways to curb galloping prices in the Indian capital.

Onion prices were a major factor in pushing inflation to a seven-month high in September of 6.46 percent, and the government, led by the Congress party, is facing heated calls in the media to bring prices down by whatever means.

India has never before imported onions by air but Farm Minister Sharad Pawar proposed just that on Wednesday because sea transport takes longer and so cannot replenish supplies as fast, thereby bringing down prices.

Elections in the capital and in the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram kick off in November.

"The state-run agencies are floating import tenders, but supplies are likely to come only after 3-4 weeks," said Changdev Holkar, a director at the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation.

"And quantity would be also miniscule compared to demand."

Private traders won't rescue the world's No. 2 producer and consumer because they know prices could quickly fall - farmers have planted far and wide to reap the benefit of high prices.

"Onions are highly perishable. Once you import, you have to sell at whatever price is prevailing in the market. You can't wait for prices to rise," said Ajit Shah, president of the onion exporters' association.

And even stopping exports won't help matters, because they have already shrunk to just a trickle.

"Our prices are too high. Buyers are switching to Pakistan and China," said a Mumbai-based exporter. Indian onions cost $900 per tonne whereas $570 will buy you a tonne from China.

Pawar stuck to basic supply-demand economics on Thursday to bring relief. "Supplies from the new season crop would start in two to three weeks and that would depress prices," he said.

He might be disappointed, though. Heavy rains are expected in the next few days in big onion-growing states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka - and that could be disastrous, Holkar said, disrupting harvesting and damaging the crop.

"Right now, imports or restrictions on exports cannot change the demand-supply equation. Dry weather for two to three weeks can increase supplies and bring down prices," said Shah. (Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Jo Winterbottom and Mark Heinrich)

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Chinese, Egyptian onions to the rescue

Bangalore, Oct 23 (IANS) In a bid to check the soaring onion prices, the United Progressive Alliance government would soon import the vegetable bulbs from China or Egypt, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said Wednesday.

The imports would be channelised through the state-run National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed), the minister said.

"We will authorise Nafed to import onions from China or Egypt where prices are lower if domestic prices remain high," Pawar told reporters on the margins of a farm meet.

As an apex body, Nafed promotes trade of farm produce and forest resources across the country, besides procuring agri-products.

"As there are ample stocks of onions in China and Egypt, we will take action early. The imported price is $500 per tonne as against $900 per tonne in the country currently," Pawar said, after inaugurating the eighth national conference of Krishi Vigyan Kendras organised by the state-run Indian Council of Agricultural Sciences.

Hoping that procurement in the domestic market would improve in a couple of weeks and aid stabilisation of onion prices, Pawar said a large quantity of the onion crop got damaged due to excessive rain in states where the bulb is grown extensively.

"At the same time, every state should take stringent action against hoarding. Nobody is exporting. The hoarding is causing shortage in the market," Pawar said.

Noting that imports would increase supply, the minister said onions have started coming to the market in Alwar in Rajasthan, about 160 km from Delhi.

Lower supply to the market had led retail onion prices to touch Rs.100 per kg in Delhi Tuesday, from Rs 80 per kg last week.

Expressing concern also for onion growers, Pawar said if prices of the bulb crash in the future the government would have to protect the investment of farmers in their crop.

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