INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The Indian Government on Saturday said it has allowed exports of 99,500 tonnes of onions, mainly sourced from Maharashtra, to six
neighbouring countries despite the ban on shipments.The Indian Government has also allowed exports of 2,000 tonnes of white onion
has been imposed to ensure adequate domestic availability against the backdrop of estimated lower Kharif and Rabi crops in 2023-24 compared
to the previous year.The ban was imposed amid an increase in demand in the international market, it added.The National Cooperative Exports
Limited (NCEL), the agency for the export of onion to these countries, sourced the domestic onions to be exported through e-platform at L1
prices.NCEL has supplied to the agency or agencies nominated by the government of the destination country at the negotiated rate on a 100
per cent advance payment basis.The offer rate of NCEL to the buyers takes into account the prevailing prices in the destination market and
also international and domestic markets.The quota allocated for export to the six countries is being supplied as per requisition made by the
other onions due to higher seed cost, adoption of good agricultural practice (GAP) and compliance to strict maximum residue limits (MRL)
Indian Department of Consumer Affairs has been fixed at 5 lakh tonnes this year.The Central agencies, like NCCF and NAFED are tying up local
agencies like FPOs/FPCs/PACs to support the procurement, storage and farmers registration to begin the procurement of any store-worthy
onion.A high-level team of the Department of Consumer Affairs, NCCF and NAFED visited Nashik and Ahmednagar districts of Maharashtra from
April 11-13, 2024, to create awareness among the farmers, FPOs/FPCs and PACs about the procurement of 5 lakh tonnes of onion for buffer
stock.To reduce the storage loss of onions, the department has decided to enhance the quantum of stocks to be irradiated and cold stored
from 1,200 tonnes last year to over 5,000 tonnes this year, with technical support from BARC, Mumbai.The pilot of onion irradiation and cold
storage taken up last year has been found to have resulted in the reduction of storage loss to less than 10 per cent, the statement said.In
March, the Union Agriculture Ministry released the data for onion production.As per the data, onion production in 2023-24 (First Advance
Estimates) is expected to be around 254.73 lakh tonnes compared to around 302.08 lakh tonnes last year.This is due to a decrease of 34.31
lakh tonne output in Maharashtra, 9.95 lakh tonne in Karnataka, 3.54 lakh tonne in Andhra Pradesh and 3.12 lakh tonne in Rajasthan, the data
showed.Source - PTI--Agencies
