Bengal raises concern over quality of onions supplied by Centre

Kolkata: A day after Union Minister of Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan announced that onions will be provided to different states at reasonable rate, Bengal government expressed concerns about the quality of the onions being supplied by the Central government.

The Centre made the decision following short supply of the crop owing to incessant rains and floods in many parts of the country.

"The quality of onions being supplied by the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) is not at all good," said a senior official of state Agriculture Marketing department. NAFED, an apex organisation of marketing cooperatives for agricultural produce under the Ministry of Agriculture of Government of India, supplies onions to Bengal. Sufal Bangla, a supply chain monitored by state Agricultural Marketing department, had already started selling onions at reasonable rate through its outlets and vehicles.

"This is to notify that onion will be sold @ Rs 33 per kg at all Sufal Bangla outlets from September 12, 2019," read a notification at sufalbangla.in.

Dealers have hinted that the price of onion is expected to rise till Diwali. "The sale of onion increase during Durga puja. We don't know what will be the condition of the market during Durga puja due to skyrocketing price of onion. The market price of onion will go down only if NAFED supplies huge and good quality onions at reasonable rate a week before Durga puja. Then the retail price of onion which is being sold at Rs 60 today will be reduced by approximately Rs 20," said Bishal, onion merchant at Sealdah's Koley market.

In August, there was shortage of onions in the market due to flood in Nashik, Maharashtra.

Then, the cost of one sack (around 40 kg) of onions had shot up from Rs 1,300 (average quality onion) to Rs 1,500.

In September, cost of one sack is Rs 1,480 (average quality onion) and Rs 1,800 (red onion - very good quality).