Hyderabad: The price of onions is continuing to fall after a recent spike. On Monday, onions were being sold for Rs 20. The Malakpet market yard, considered the largest onion market in the city, received 70 truckloads of the bulbs, 43 of them from Maharashtra and Karnataka. Experts said that the over-production of onions had led to the drop in prices.
“The trucks from Karnataka and Mahrashtra brought in 5,640 quintals of onion. In the state, there are places like Mahbubnagar, Medak, and Tandur and in Andhra Pradesh we have Kurnool, from where we get onions. From these places we received 23 trucks carrying 2,760 quintals of onion,” said Damodar, an AMC with the agriculture department.
He said many farmers had chosen to plant onions as the prices had risen last year. But the prices had risen as farmers were unable to send their yield out due to the pandemic. “We had a lot of supply issues last year. Now there is a surplus amount of onions,” he said.
G.V. Ramananjenayulu, agrarian expert from the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, said: “Going by the look of things, the prices of onions are expected to fall even further. This is a usual occurrence, the price falls every time a new crop comes to the market.”
In a calendar year, the price of onions falls steeply only twice. While the first is in March the next time would be around September. "Since, the state has no or very little production, we depend on imports from other states," he said.
