The price of onion in retail markets across the city is soaring and has touched Rs 70 per kg.
Retailers on Tuesday attributed the surge to a demand-supply mismatch during the festive period.
Most retailers in some of the city’s prominent retail markets, including the ones in Maniktala, Gariahat, Sealdah and Behala, said the supply fell short of the demand. And the onions that are coming are mostly of inferior quality.
At Jadubabu’s market in Bhowanipore, onions of the better quality sold for Rs 80 a kg.
The price of onion, which varied between Rs 35 and Rs 40 a kilo before Durga Puja, has been rising since after Mahalaya (which fell on October 14 this year). The trend has been continuing, forcing many to cut down on consumption.
“Onions, like potatoes, are a daily necessity. The steep rise in the price has forced many like me to reduce the purchase,” said Apurba Ghosh, a Kasba resident.
Senior officials in the state’s agri-marketing department said the state requires close to 11 tonnes of onion annually.
Bengal produces around 6.5 tonnes of onion. Since a significant portion of it is wasted because of a slack preservation system, the state has to bring in almost 8 tonne of onions from other states.
“The price of onions is pretty high now, nationally. In Delhi, it is around Rs 80 a kilo in retail markets. Like several other states, we, too, have to depend on the supply from Nasik,” said a senior official in the department.
“The Bengal onions will start arriving in markets from the end of January. Till then, we have to largely depend on supplies from other states.”
Wholesalers in Dankuni, Burrabazar and the Koley market in Sealdah, three major wholesale markets for onions, said the price has been rising ever since the supply from Nasik started dwindling.
There is no sign yet of the fresh kharif onion, which should have started arriving by now in the wholesale markets in Nasik. The stored rabi onion is getting exhausted, traders said.
“The price of onion in Nasik has risen from Rs 1,100 to Rs 1,600 for every 40 kilos over the last few days. Add to it the transportation cost and wastage. The wholesale price here is over Rs 55 a kilo, way higher than what it should be during these times,” said Avijit Sarkar, an onion trader in Burrabazar.
Onion dealers across the city said the demand for the item, which hovers around 1 lakh tonne a month, shoots up significantly during the festive season.
“The Puja restrictions on the entry of trucks into the city started early, around Mahalaya, this time. The bulk of the city’s demand was met with scant supply from districts that arrived in the city in smaller vehicles during the brief periods when the entry of goods vehicles into Kolkata was allowed. The bigger trucks carrying onions from other states mostly stayed away,” said Kamal Dey, president of the West Bengal Vendors’ Association and a member of the government-appointed task force on vegetables.
“Till a couple of days ago, the crowd at the Santosh Mitra Square puja was unmanageable and trucks couldn’t reach the Koley market.”
Earlier, onions would come by train. “That stopped a few years ago because of the handling and transportation costs,” said Dey.