The state government has requested for 200 tonnes of onions from the Centre every week to cope with soaring onion prices. But even if the Centre does agree to supply the onions, they are unlikely to reach Bengal’s markets before mid-December, officials said.

As onion prices touched Rs 120, the state government wrote to the ministry of food and consumer affairs in New Delhi, stating that it would like to buy onions at Rs 65 a kg.

The Centre had decided on November 9 to import one lakh tonnes of onions. Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation of India will import onions and the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited will supply it to the domestic market.

“Bengal will require 200 tonnes of imported onions every week till December-end,” a senior official of the agricultural marketing department said. “Till then, onion prices would continue to swing on the higher side.”

Onions are being sold at Rs 110-120 a kg in markets across the city from Lake Market to Maniktala and Gariahat to Beleghata.

“Onions reaching us are of poor quality. We are buying in small quantities from wholesale markets since customers have cut down on consumption,” said Ramesh Saha, a vegetable vendor in Kasba. “At Kolley Market, the wholesale price is fluctuating every day.”

Sources at Nabanna said Bengal was struggling to meet a demand for 45,000 tonnes of onions every month with around 15-20,000 tonnes. The shortfall has led to doubling of price from Rs 55.

Cyclone Bulbul, too, had struck a blow. “It took time for the land to dry. New bulbs have just been planted. It will take several weeks for new crop to reach the domestic markets,” said Swadhin Das, a farmer from Sandeshkhali in South 24-Parganas.

Much of the shortfall is now being met with onions from Maharashtra. But a large amount of onions from Lasalgaon in Nashik, the country’s largest wholesale market for the produce, has been reaching the city rotten because of poor handling in transit.