Consignments of imported onions were supposed to arrive from India before Ramadan, but not a single kilogramme has arrived even though the holy month started on Tuesday.
Commerce State Minister Ahsanul Islam Titu told The Business Post that his ministry is working on price negotiations with India. “They are being told to reduce the duty on their part. Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh is coordinating the matter. India has sent a letter to Bangladesh in this regard. It is expected that onion imports will start soon.”
On the second day of this month, the state minister said, “50,000 metric tonnes of onions will arrive from India this week. As a result, onion prices will be under control in the market.”
It is learned that during the thirteenth ministerial-level meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, the State Minister had a bilateral discussion with India’s Commerce Minister, Piyush Goyal. There, India’s commerce minister said that he has ordered to issue a letter about sending 50,000 tonnes of onions to Bangladesh.
After Bangladesh received the letter, the state minister for commerce in Bangladesh told the media that onions would start coming to the country on March 10.
But the reality is that even though the holy month of Ramadan has started, onion consignments have not arrived. In this situation, the price of onions is increasing in the domestic market of the country. A kg of onion was 75 to 100 taka on Monday at retail markets.
On February 19, India approved the export of onions in limited quantities to six countries, including Bangladesh. According to Indian media reports, onions will be exported from the government to the government level in these countries.
It was said in the news that the Indian authorities decided on the recommendation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, the Indian media could not say anything about how much onion will be exported or when it will start to export.
The countries where India will export onions are Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Bahrain, Bhutan and Nepal.
Bangladesh's government sent a letter to India expressing interest in importing 50 thousand tons of onions and one lakh tons of sugar from India after the export was allowed.
Before that, major Indian exporters wrote to the Indian government saying that limited onion exports may be allowed due to increased supply in the local market. The price of onions in the Nashik area of Maharashtra, India has dropped from Rs 40 to Rs 13 per kg.
Ever since the export ban was imposed, farmers from one of the major onion-producing areas in the country have been protesting for its withdrawal. Nashik District Onion Traders Association also held several rounds of protest programs.
India imposed a ban on onion exports from December 7 last year to March 31 this year. However, earlier last August, the Indian government imposed a 40 per cent tariff on onion exports to maintain normal supply in the country’s market. Then last October, the minimum export price of onion was set at $800 per ton.
However, as these measures were not very effective in increasing the supply of onion in the domestic market, the Indian government completely stopped onion exports.
Soon after the news of the ban, the price of onion doubled overnight in the Bangladesh market to over Tk 200 per kg. However, after the arrival of the new harvest of onions, the market price came down. However, due to the end of the onion season, the price started to rise again in the market.
Traders say that after a few weeks, the price of this product will come down when new varieties of onions come to the market.
Compared to this time last year, however, the price of onion in the market is quite high. According to the Agriculture Ministry’s market price report, local onion is being sold at Tk 75 to Tk 100 per kg in the Dhaka market now. At this time last year, onions were sold at Tk 30 to Tk 35 per kg.
