India: Onions tumble on good harvest, leftover stock

Fresh Plaza (Dec. 21, 2011) | It’s December again and onion is making headlines. While governments intervened in markets last December to protect consumers from high onion prices, now governments are trying to save farmers from low prices amid a glut in output. In Maharashtra, the biggest grower, prices have crashed below Rs 5/kg for the first time in four years. Retail prices had touched Rs 100/kg last December, forcing the government to cool down prices by discouraging exports throughout the year. As a result, the stored onion, which should have otherwise been sold by November, is lying unsold while a huge volume of newly harvested onion is entering the markets everyday.