Onion prices down, but yet to stabilise

Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Muktsar, January 23

Though the prices of onion have come down, these have not stabilised yet. For instance, 1 kg of onion was selling at Rs70 a few days ago, which first fell to Rs60 and then to Rs50. Now, the prices have risen to Rs60 per kg again.

The prices had skyrocketed due to supply shortage in the recent past. Though fresh stocks of onions have arrived in the market and the Union Government has started import from other countries, the prices are still to fall back to the past level.

In August last year, onion was being sold Rs25 per kg. However, in the first week of September last year, it reached Rs40 per kg and then for few days, these ranged from Rs50 to 70 per kg. In November, these reached Rs80 per kg.

Deepti, a housewife, said: “The onion prices are still not under control. I bought one kg of onion for Rs50 on Monday, but on Wednesday, the prices have risen to Rs60 per kg. It seems these will again reach Rs70 per kg.” Similarly, Lovely, a resident of Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan, who had come to Muktsar on Wednesday, said: “Onion was being sold at Rs40 per kg in our town. However, it is costlier in Punjab.”

Meanwhile, some vegetable vendors said they were hopeful that the price would remain between Rs40 and 60 for the next few days.