Hyderabad: Onion price hits an all-time high

Hyderabad: The price of onions is ranging from Rs 80 to Rs 100 per kg in the city as the prices rose steeply. A highest ever price of Rs 11,000 per quintal in the wholesale market was witnessed on Monday.

In the last few days, prices varied from Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000 per quintal. But on Monday, the prices saw a major rise as it hit an all-time high. Till last week, prices were fluctuating between Rs 60 and Rs 70 per kg.

Telangana is dependent on Maharashtra for onions and the transport from the state has been low due to incessant rains. Earlier, 120 to 150 lorries per day used to transport onions but the number fell down to 80 lorries now.

The sky-high prices have forced kirana stores and small retail shops against store onions.

G Ramesh, a kirana store owner in A.S. Rao Nagar, says, “In one kg onion, if half kg is wet or of bad quality, customers fight with us. They say that we have got bad stock and are charging them for it. For this reason, since a month, I have stopped selling onions.”

People are being extremely cautious while buying onions.

Madhumita Chowdhary, a housewife, explained, “I would pick 5 kgs of onions from the super markets as it was cheap. But, of late, I buy only one kg.

Apart from the price, most of the onions smell bad. They attract fruit flies during the day and rodents at night.” The sorry state of onions has forced people reduce its use in cooking and also as raw salads.

A number of salads in India are onion-based and there is a switch to other leafy vegetables, cucumbers and beetroot.

With the price of onion continuing to sky rocket, there are vendors who are taking orders for wedding season by offering discounts. One of the reasons is clearance of stock.

Venkat Ramana, a trader in Secunderabad vegetable market, said, “I am offering discounts only for large orders of weddings. This is to keep my stocks moving.”

Vendors who have huge stocks are not seeing the desired sales and are keen to roll it out for weddings and party orders.