New Delhi, Dec 1 (IANS): To control the rising prices of onion, the government is importing 11,000 tonnes of the staple vegetable from Turkey. Government sources on Sunday said that the MMTC has signed a second import order for this and the consignment will reach the country by end of December or the first week of January.

The MMTC is arranging imports of onions from various countries, including Turkey, the sources said.

The MMTC had earlier signed an import deal for 6,900 tonnes from Egypt, and this consignment is expected to reach here in the next 10 days, and help to moderate prices once it is in the market. According to market sources, the retain price of onion in Delhi-NCR on Sunday was Rs 80-120 per kg.

The price, according to the Azadpur wholesale market APMC list, was between Rs 20-62.50 per kg while the arrival of onion stood at 828 tonnes.

On November 20, the Union Cabinet had approved the import of 1.2 lakh tonnes of onions.

A committee, under Home Minister Amit Shah, and comprising the Finance, Consumer Affairs, Agriculture and Surface Transport Ministers, had been set up to keep a watch on onion prices.

This year, heavy rain at the end of monsoon in chief onion-producing states had damaged the kharif season crop and led to a supply shortage.

Union Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan had, at a press conference last month, said that the rain damage could see production of onion decline as much as 26 per cent.