Sufal Bangla emerges as most visited stall at Industrial India Trade Fair

Kolkata: Sufal Bangla has emerged as the most visited stall at the 32nd Industrial India Trade Fair.

"We have a huge rush of customers buying onions and potatoes. We have sold one kg of potato at Rs 17 (around Rs 13 less than the market price) and one kg of onion at Rs 59," said Ainul Mollah of Sufal Bangla stall, the state government's supply chain and sales point, at the 32nd Industrial India Trade Fair held at Park Circus Maidan.

He reiterated that the average per-day sale of onion was 230 kg, while the same for potatoes was 300 kg.

"In comparison to last year's sales estimation, there has been an increase of 70 percent in the number of customers coming to the stall at the fair this year," Mollah pointed out.

It might be mentioned that the price of onions has shot up throughout the country, due to a shortage of supply from Nasik. In Tamil Nadu and Madurai, onion was sold for over Rs 200 per kg, while in Kolkata the price touched Rs 150 in December last year.

Meanwhile, the price of one kg of onion stood at Rs 120 in the city on Wednesday.

However, the government has chipped-in with subsidy to sell onions at Rs 59 per kg from 136 Sufal Bangla stalls in various markets across the state, including 19 in the city. 935 ration shops in the city are also selling the vegetable at the same rate.

While the price of onion has reached a record high in both the wholesale and retail markets, Bankura district is all set to supply 300 tonnes of the vegetable to the market within a fortnight.

Farmers have been able to cultivate onion in 12 blocks of the district and the price is expected to slide down a bit as soon as the produce hits the market.