INDIAN CONSUMER GOES RAMPAGE OVER SOARING PRICE OF ONION
World second most production of onion is India, usually we exports 2.2 million tones of onion to overseas, which is nearly half of onion export by Asian countries. Onion is one of the major ingredients of Indian consumer as it reduces cholesterol level, which lowers blood pressure among the heart patient and it also reduce the blood clot. Karnataka and Maharashtra are listed as major production of onion in India. Usually production of onion is ease than expected, except this season. In the month of June and July the price of the onion is 15rs per kg where as now 1 kg of onion price is in the range of 100-150rs, which is 100% increase in the price, due to the unseasoned catastrophic rainfall. The average price of onion in India is 80rs per kg, which skyhigh when compared with six month before.
The price of the onion where increasing from month of November, especially in the second week of December, it has reaches to its pinnacle as 1 kg of onion is above 200rs on an average across India. Soaring price of onion affects not only business in the small hotel but also the corporate hotel. This scarcity of the vegetable leaves the homemaker to cut down the ingredient in the sambar, chuttney, gravy, whereas in the hotel and restaurant bought onion for high price (cause the food inflation).There are so many memes going around the social pages. In one such incident, a group of friends gift 1 kg of onion to the wedding couple in marriage occasion. In another case 12,000rs worth of onion has been theft in Mumbai city and is registered. To further worsen situation not only onion is affected, crops like potato, cereals are also witness increasing scenario as price of the potato last month is 32rs per kg, but now price of the potato is 45rs per kg.
Consumer affair minister for food and distribution insist NAFED (National Agriculture Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd) to support the chaotic situation. Government also taken major steps in banning the import of onion to other countries, and felicitates the import of onion. It also announced farmer should have only limited inventories and rest should distributed to the consumer at the reasonable price.
Another alternate solution is the usage of red onion. Government makes arrangements for red onion from Karnataka and Maharashtra reaches other states as soon as possible. Red onion- cannot be stored for more than 3 day. India also imports tones of onion from Egypt and Turkey to overcome current deficit issue. Central Government and the State Government is in talk with farmer in bringing the current situation to stable. With the new arrival of onion, price of the onion is expected come down to 20rs per kg in month of January, which is a big relief to Indian consumer.
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