PUNE: As the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has lifted the ban for export of onions, the export is expected to begin from March 15.
The Ministry issued a notification on March 2, stating that all varieties of onion have been made ‘free’ without any condition of Letter of Credit (LC) and Minimum Export Price (MEP) will be effective from March 15.
The government had imposed a ban on onion export from September 29, 2019 as the price of onion was skyrocketing and reached Rs 150 to 180 in the retail market last year.
However, with the stabilisation of price, increase in supply of onions and sliding wholesale price of onions, the government decided to remove the ban on export. On February 26, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ram Vilas Paswan tweeted about it.
Lasalgaon APMC Chairperson Suvarna Jagtap said, “It is a welcome move that the government has finally issued an official notification. Wholesale price continued to slide down and reached Rs 1,200 to 1,300 per quintal on Monday. This was creating loss for farmers. However things have improved and on Tuesday the wholesale price is at Rs 1,500-1,600 per quintal. With export notification coming in, we hope that the price will remain stable and there might be a hike in price once the export starts as it can reach Rs 2,000 per quintal.”
