By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, SEP 06, 2024: UNION Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution & New and Renewable Energy, Pralhad Venkatesh Joshi launched the retail sale of onion at Rs.35 per kg by flagging off mobile vans of National Cooperative Consumer's Federation of India Ltd. (NCCF) and National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) deployed for the sale here, yesterday. The event marked the commencement of calibrated and targeted release of onion from the government buffer to make the essential vegetable available to consumers at affordable prices.

While addressing the media, Joshi said that keeping food inflation under control is a priority of Government of India and several direct interventions through price stabilisation measures have played important role in bringing down inflation rate in recent month.

"The onion buffer stock available with us is 4.7 lakh tonnes from the rabi crop. The Price Stabilisation Fund which was started under the guidance of Hon'ble Prime Minister, Narendra Modi aims at intervening in the market when price of essential commodities increase," Joshi said adding on that the retail sale of onion will provide relief to the consumers across the country.

The targeted disposal of onion from the buffer is an integral part of centre government's efforts to control food inflation and maintain stable price regime.

The targeted disposal of onion is being started with retail sale through outlets and mobile vans of NCCF and NAFED, e-commerce platforms and outlets of Kendriya Bhandar and SAFAL in major consumption centres. The quantity and disposal channels for onion will be enhanced, deepened, intensified and diversified as per the trend in onion prices. The Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India, is monitoring the daily prices of 38 commodities, including onion, reported from 550 centres across the country. The daily price data and the comparative trends constitute key inputs for decisions on the quantum and destinations for release of onion from the buffer.

Pertinently, compared to last year's onion procurement of 3.0 lakh tonnes, this year the procurement is of 4.7 lakh tonnes for price stabilisation buffer through NCCF and NAFED from the rabi crop. The onion was procured from farmers/farmer's federations in major rabi onion producing areas in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, and payments for the onion have been made through direct transfer to the farmers accounts. An integrated system for monitoring of procurement, storage and disposal has been adopted in onion operation this year by deploying technology capture all the stages of the activities.

Price realization by onion farmers during this rabi season has been better compared to last year as mandi modal prices remain remained in the range of Rs.1,230 – Rs.2,578 per quintal as compared to Rs.693 – Rs.1,205 per quintal last year. On the same line, the average buffer procurement price this year was Rs.2,833 per quintal as against Rs.1,724 per quintal last year. As store-worthy onion are procured for the buffer, the procurement prices of onion have always been higher than the prevailing modal price.

The outlook for onion availability and prices in coming months remain positive as kharif sowing area has seen an increase of 102% till 26 th August, 2024, over last year. As per data compiled by Department of Agriculture, 2.90 lakh hectares have been covered under kharif onion till 26 th August, 2024 as against 1.94 lakh hectares during corresponding period last year. Further, about 38 lakh tonnes of onion are reported to be still in storage with farmers and traders.

The Department of Consumer Affairs is keeping a close watch on the onion crop availability and prices to take necessary measures in the interest of both the consumers and the farmers. In this regard, the government will take necessary measures to ensure remunerative prices to farmers while making onion available to consumers at affordable prices.

Retail disposal of onion are starting from today in Delhi NCR and Mumbai. Thereafter in the next one-week Agencies will cover Kolkata, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Raipur and Bhubaneshwar. By the 3 rd week of September there will be pan India distribution. Agencies are also also tying up with other Cooperatives and big retail chains across India. Locations of Delhi NCR and Mumbai are as follows: